Right in the Centre - Not much to complain about in rural Manitoba
- Details
- Published on Thursday, August 10, 2023
Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
If anyone is bored these days, it sure isn’t the fault of rural Manitoba. Just a week or two ago there were six country fairs in six days. The Ukrainian National Festival was in Dauphin this past weekend. Rockin’ the Fields was in Minnedosa and the ManitobaYouth Beef Round-Up was in Neepawa. Rivers had their recent homecoming and a golf tournament. Rapid City had a golf tournament and it seems like there’s a golf tournament to go to every day at this time of year. Campgrounds are full and if you want a job, just about every farmer in the country is looking for hired help. Construction sites need workers and most businesses could use an extra staff person. This weekend and next, the country is full of events. Most of them aren’t all that expensive to attend either. It’s not so much a matter of what can we do as it is how do we choose what to do?
Read more: Right in the Centre - Not much to complain about in rural Manitoba
Right in the Centre - Change speed zones now!
- Details
- Published on Friday, August 4, 2023
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
The past two columns have been about highways within towns. The issue I have with Highways, or Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure, is that they have a hugely difficult process for doing something as simple as changing speed zones. The particular question I have is: Why have they not lowered the speed limit east of Neepawa on Hwy. 16 at the eastern boundary of the town limits? The amount of traffic on that piece of road is going to lead to accidents and possibly death that could well be at a reduced risk of happening if the speed limit was lowered. Currently it is 100 km/hr and that is senseless.
Right in the Centre - The government should be embarrassed
- Details
- Published on Friday, July 28, 2023
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
In preparation for last week’s column where I challenged Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure about highway speeds in our towns, I was forced through a convoluted and complicated process. The process the government has set up is made complicated to discourage questions. But, here’s how it all came down. I phoned highways and the very nice person on the phone took my message where I was asking to speak to one of the two head people at highways in the Brandon Regional office. No response for several days. So, I phoned again and talked to the nice person but was advised that I would have to talk to a Media Engagement Specialist.
Read more: Right in the Centre - The government should be embarrassed
Right in the centre - It could be very simple
- Details
- Published on Friday, July 21, 2023
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
My former U of M professor said at a grad gathering to be wary of statistics. Being a good farm girl, she knew of what she spoke. She said, “A couple of statisticians were out rabbit hunting. They both spotted the same rabbit at the same time and each took a shot. One shot was two feet in front of the rabbit, one shot was two feet behind the rabbit. On average the rabbit was dead”.
Right in the Centre - It should never happen again!
- Details
- Published on Friday, July 14, 2023
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
COVID-19 was among the worst diseases to hit Canada in the past 100 years or more. In my opinion, it was handled worse than any previous disease. I won’t argue that vaccines were wrong, although there is a lot of evidence that the benefits of vaccines were highly over-promoted. I would daresay that vaccines should not have been compulsory and there are those who will vehemently disagree with me. It’s just that, in general terms, I am very wary of anything being compulsory. There were people who didn’t get vaccinated who died from C-19 but there were a lot of people who didn’t get vaccinated who didn’t even get sick. There were people who had two, three or four vaccine shots and they got C-19 and some of them died.
All that said, my biggest complaint is the absurd way sick people were handled, especially those in hospitals and care homes.
Read more: Right in the Centre - It should never happen again!
