Looking Back — June 20, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/06/2023 (1177 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Seven young women graduated with a diploma in mental nursing from the Brandon Mental Hospital. This was the first time in Western Canada such a graduation had ever taken place. (This year is the 100th anniversary of psychiatric nursing in Canada, and the 25th anniversary of the first psychiatric nursing graduation at Brandon University.)

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Mayor Frank Taylor, cutting a royal blue ribbon, officially opened the new office of the Rural Municipality of Daly at Rivers last week.

In an abrupt about-turn, Canadian stock markets climbed out of a severe dive and onto one of the most dramatic surges of buying power ever witnessed by veteran market observers.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

By June of next year, Murray Chev Olds Cadillac Ltd., now located at 1906 Park Ave., will move to a new location, says E.C. Murray, president and general manager of the auto dealership.

McLeans IGA store at 2230 Victoria Ave. will be closing at the end of this month or early in July because its owner says he “just can’t compete with the big food chains in the city” by opening at night.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Bill Lawrence of Melita, with his tractor “Randy Canadian” — a 1,710-cubic-inch, 1,500-horsepower aircraft engine on wheels — won the Manitoba Tractor Pull competition at the Provincial Exhibition.

Attendance at this year’s Provincial Exhibition rose to 74,000 from last year’s 50,000.

The city is ready to sign with the federal government to pave the way for runway extension at the Brandon airport.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

The expansion to the Keystone Centre had a major impact on this year’s Manitoba Summer Fair. The fairgrounds were a lot less congested this year, even though attendance had increased. Some of the more popular free entertainment available this year included the truck pulls, pig racing and BMX cycle demonstration.

The high-speed rail link between London and Paris took a symbolic step forward today, when a test train passed slowly through the Channel Tunnel from France to England.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

The fate of every Canadian Pacific Railway worker in Westman is hanging in the balance as the railway company announces massive layoffs over the next two years. CPR spokesman Len Cocolicchio says 820 workers will be laid off by 2005. This year, 370 layoffs will occur, with another 330 in 2004 and 120 more in 2005.

Canadian packers are being offered $50 million to empty their freezers of beef processed before the mad cow crisis began in an attempt to get the country’s beef supply moving again. The program is part of the $460-million federal-provincial aid package for an industry devastated since international markets were closed May 20 with the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an Alberta cow. All provinces have agreed to take part in the aid program.

TEN YEARS AGO

Pressure from the university level has prompted the province to revise the kindergarten to Grade 8 math curriculum, and a Brandon University professor says the changes can’t come soon enough. “I think it’s long overdue,” said Jeff Williams, the chair of BU’s department of mathematics and computer science. “We have the problem of students entering who have no understanding of mathematics or very little understanding of mathematics and very little knowledge.”

Increased calls, finances and the changing face of the city’s population — those are just some of the challenges faced by the city’s new police board. The board’s first meeting proved to be a preview of the issues it will have to tackle in coming years. And one of the ways it will try to handle those challenges will be the creation of a new strategic plan for the Brandon Police Service, to replace one developed about five years ago.