Volume 55 Number 09
Friday, March 6, 2015
Thompson, Manitoba Providing you with expert advice & friendly service. Book online at speedyglass.ca or try our free app on your iPhone
We look forward to serving you. Ϳͷ-A Kelsey Bay Thompson, MB R;N ͷS Ph: Ͷͺ-ͽͽ;-ͽͶͺ; Fax: Ͷͺ-ͽͽ;-ͽͷͺ
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Radio roadshow touches down in the north BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
CBC listeners in Northern Manitoba had their first opportunity to hear programming from within their region since CBC North Country host Mark Szyszlo went on sabbatical when Marcy Markus, host of CBC Information Radio, took her morning show on the road in Churchill and Thompson Feb. 24 and Feb. 26. Markusa said after her broadcast from Thompson’s Tim Hortons that the experience opened her eyes to what life in those communities was like and how much change they’ve gone through recently. “Here in Thompson, I told the mayor, it’s a changed placed to me,” said Markusa. “I could feel a little bit of that change from when I was last here which was about 10 years ago. I could feel what he said they’re trying to do in terms of positioning Thompson even more as a modern city. Last time I was here the University College of the North wasn’t built yet.” She was also surprised by what, exactly, was similar in Winnipeg and the Hub of the North. “I found it interesting that here in Thompson there’s a bit of a push towards active transportation,” she said. “I thought that’ll be a long while before it reaches a city like Thompson with a busy trucking hauling highway and the cold extreme climate but I got a look at your multi-use paths and so a lot of those movements are similar.” Churchill impressed her with its unique environment and small-town feel. “People were so hospitable and I think it was wonderful because in Churchill for example, we didn’t come on purpose during high tourist season,” Markusa says. “We wanted to really find out about life in Churchill for people who call it home year-round. And landed during a blizzard. Last plane in. So they were wonderful in teaching us and talking to us about the future growth of that community and where they see themselves going in terms of hopefully developing more tourism for Churchill and in turn also making sure that more and
more dollars stay right in the town to continue to develop things year-round.” She was also impressed with the culture in the northern port. “I was astounded at how many different artists there were, from sculptors to musicians and painters,” Markusa said. “Just being in the trading post there I actually bought a sculpture and then later I was having coffee in the café and I met the artist. That’s not happening in Winnipeg. It’s just wonderful.” The experience also gave her a new perspective that will inform her weather reports from Winnipeg in the future.” “The irony is this morning we were colder in Winnipeg than here,” she said. “It’s a slightly different cold. I know that sounds odd but especially Churchill because of the wind. I will be speaking differently on the radio now when I say with the wind in Churchill it feels like -50. It’s not the same. It is so much more severe and it’s a totally different feeling with the gusts.” Part of the reason behind the northern stops was to reinforce that CBC radio serves the whole province and not just the Winnipeg area, though the return of local programming will depend on the broadcaster finding a temporary host to step into Mark Szyszlo’s shoes until the fall. Markusa said she heard from several people who didn’t know about his sabbatical and were concerned that Northern Manitoba had lost its CBC bureau. “I think [the CBC] connects us as province,” she said, and this trip provided an opportunity not only for northerners to tell their stories but for people from the south to hear them. “There are unique things about the north that I think we can benefit from understanding from the south, in terms of the challenge of transportation, in terms of the real cost of living in the north, the cost of getting to the north, the value of getting to the north and the value of growing the north as well because Thompson as a hub – and I know that word gets used a lot and has for many years – but the mayor this morning
Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham CBC Information Radio host Marcy Markusa following her broadcast in Thompson Feb. 26. talking about how to redefine what that means for Thompson. It becomes extremely critical to the whole province, really, if Thompson doesn’t move forward and redefine itself and succeed because we’ve visited towns where a business leaves town and it’s all boarded up and shut down so that repositioning is extremely critical. And if it doesn’t matter to people in the south, it should.” Part of the fun of the trip for the host was getting a glimpse into the different perspective of Northern Manitobans. “I just loved some of the charm of the differences in terms of what you have in abundance here, which is beauty and wildlife,” said Markusa. “The kids at Westwood School – I read to a class there – they asked me my favourite animal and I think I said dog. They sort of looked at me and started murmuring, what about moose and caribou? The exposure that they’ve had to just the amazing wildlife in Manitoba is just something that we can’t touch in the south. They kind of looked at me like, why wouldn’t you live here? They were really, really cool.”
North Stars stave off elimination once before falling BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
The Norway House North Stars avoided getting swept out of the Keystone Junior Hockey League playoffs by defeating the Peguis Juniors 5-4 in a must-win game at home Feb. 28 but came out on the low end of a one-goal game the following day to see their season end. Sam McKay Jr. scored a pair of goals in the final six minutes of the game, the last with only 59 seconds remaining, to take the North Stars from one goal down to one ahead. Kenley Monias had given them an early 2-0 lead with two goals in the first half of the opening period but the Juniors’ Tyrell Armstrong cut the lead in half before the first intermission and Tyler McKay tied it up in the second. Gregory Paupanekis restored Norway
House’s lead less than six minutes later, but third period goals by Devon Garson and Waylon Neault of Peguis, under a minute apart and the second one shorthanded, put the North Stars and their season on the ropes until the late stages. Sean Bradburn of the North Stars and Keifer Tacan of the Juniors both made 25 saves in net. It was the Juniors’ turn to snatch a late victory on March 1, as Jesse Flett’s second goal of the contest with 3:20 left in the third period won the game 2-1 and the series three games to one. Monias had tied the game five minutes into the third period. Flett scored in the early stages of the second period to give Peguis a 1-0 lead. Bradburn made 39 saves in the game while Taican stopped 35 for the Juniors.
DEADLINE NOTICE With Easter coming up, please note the following changes in our printing schedule:
On Wednesday, April 1 there will be a combined issue of the Thompson Citizen & Nickel Belt News. The deadline for ads in that issue is 3 pm Friday, March 27. There will be no Nickel Belt News produced on March 3. The next issue of the Thompson Citizen will be published on Wednesday, April 8. The deadline for ads in that issue is 3 pm Wednesday, April 1.