The wide-spread expansion of legalized sports gambling had been something I was looking forward to.

It felt goofy you couldn’t bet on single NFL games at Manitoba’s Sport Select and I thought it would be better to bring it into the light.

There certainly have been pains in the first few years of wide-spread legalized sports gambling, especially around advertising. I can’t imagine what it feels like to have a problem with gambling and be a sports fan nowadays, when nearly every league is plastered with temptations.

I was hopeful those were just growing pains and figured the ridiculous advertising would slow down once the big players had established themselves.

In the 42 years that I’ve been writing this column, I can count on one hand with fingers to spare how many times I’ve responded to letters to the editor, whether they were positive or negative.

I have always maintained that we are all entitled to our own opinions; I have mine and others have theirs.

I completely understand that some people don’t want any politics in their sports; I too wish sport would be free from politics. But I also know from the times people come up to me in Steinbach and tell me that they enjoy the column, that some people are quite okay with discussions about the intersection of sports and politics.

One of my favourite phrases is “sports is the toy department in the hardware store of life.” I would love it if sport could stay in the toy department. But that’s not the world we live in anymore. Sport - like movies, TV, music, fashion and art - are frequently suffused with politics.

The Steinbach Arts Council’s favourite free outdoor tradition is nearly over The 2026 K.R. Barkman Concerts in the Park series brings performing arts to the gazebo every week through June 17.

Concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. at K.R, Barkman Park (Main Street, southeast of the fire hall). Grab your lawn chairs or a blanket and enjoy live performances!

2026 remaining concert schedule

June 17 – Jess & Janice, P-Noise

This year marks my 40th year as a Carillon columnist. In 1986 I sent a letter to the newspaper in response to a regular contributor who had written a critical article about daycares. Editor Peter Dyck liked my letter. He asked if I’d consider having a regular column in the paper. I agreed to give it a try. Here I am 40 years later, still writing my Viewpoint column.

I thought it might be interesting to look back and see what topics I was covering in 1986. Thanks to my mother who cut out and saved my columns in scrapbooks I still have copies of many of my past Viewpoints.

In September of that year I started a teaching assignment in the brand-new elementary school in Mitchell. One of my columns was about the wonderful parents who had helped me unpack boxes of new materials and supplies and set up my classroom. More than half of my students’ parents signed up to come into my class on a regular basis to act as educational helpers. Parents brought baked goods and flowers to the staff room for the teachers, offered to serve on a parent-council and helped set up the library. I was impressed.

In another column I talked about why so many more women than men lived in poverty in Canada. I outlined the ways Mr. Jake Epp, who was my Member of Parliament at the time, and was serving as the Minister of Health and Welfare in the Mulroney cabinet, was trying to address the problem of poverty amongst Canadian women. He was proposing that women who were homemakers should be able to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan and receive benefits from it. He had also instituted a nation-wide task force to study the need for a national daycare system which he said was necessary for women to achieve economic equality.