My Perspective: Food for thought

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Banner

Sometimes, I find myself at a bit of a cross roads in the grocery store aisles.  I’m sure I’m not the only one – in rural Manitoba, we are in a unique position of being both suppliers and consumers.

When it comes to buying one of our main necessities, food, we have a lot of options.  We have choices within our home communities, we have choices in neighbouring communities and we have choices in larger regional centres.  Overall, in Canada, there are lots of choices, especially as non-traditional grocers, like Wal-Mart, continue to enter the market. 

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Observation Sept. 16

By Addy Oberlin

Neepawa Banner

Our life is like a timeline. When you are little you cannot wait to go to kindergarten, then it is time to go to school. After spending 12 years in school you cannot wait to get out of school and see what the world has in store, maybe moving away from home, getting more schooling or entering the workforce. Sometimes even the adventure of the workforce does not satisfy and you look forward to retirement. Then you’ll have freedom to do as you please and go wherever you want to.

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Homebodies - Working with salvage and waxing creative

By Rita Friesen

Neepawa Banner

It was important to me to have a garage. And then to be doubly blessed with not only an attached single car garage, but a double garage/workshop in the back yard! My family wondered at my need to keep, and relocate, the tools, the saws, the whole kit and caboodle from the shop, but I knew what I wanted and they quietly complied. Right down to letting me keep the chainsaw, but there is one ancient wooden ladder missing! 

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Faithfully yours - Justice is blind—not deaf

By Neil Strohschein

Neepawa Banner

In previous columns, I identified what I believe are the two foundation stones of a just society.

The first is that the laws themselves must set out clear standards of right and wrong. They must show consistent respect for human life, human rights and private property. In addition, they must allow for individuals to decide whether or not they will believe in a god and if so, which one; where they will live, what they will do for a living and the relationships they will pursue.

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My Perspective - Share the pain

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

In August 2011, I toured the west side of Lake Manitoba with then MLA Stu Briese. Months after the spring run off, lake levels were still high and the flooding was widespread. A wet fall, snowy winter and wet spring combined to create spring flooding across the province.  Around Lake Manitoba, there was an extra, unnatural factor, the Portage Diversion. Designed to handle 25,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), the diversion’s capacity was amped up to 35,000 cfs to protect more valuable crops and properties along the Assiniboine east of Portage. In 2011, the Portage Diversion was in operation for 125 days, significantly more than any other year since 1970, and handled 4.77 million acre feet of water, close to double the second highest volume.

Read more: My Perspective - Share the pain