Looking Back — Aug. 28, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/08/2023 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Fifty-six years of waiting are over; the town of Hamiota will soon have a complete water and sewage system.

Softly chanting freedom songs, a multitude of Black marchers and white sympathizers estimated at about 200,000 moved on Abraham Lincoln’s shrine today in a great civil rights march. The freedom march started at the Washington Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial, where Rev. Martin Luther King spoke.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

A warped metal frame is all that was left of an atomic transfer flatbed semi-trailer carrying tar or oil-impregnated building materials after it caught fire en route to Winnipeg about one-half mile west of Alexander on the Trans- Canada Highway.

A severe storm hit the town of Dauphin and Wasagaming last night. A half-hour of intensive hail between the size of golf balls and baseballs broke windows and pock-marked cars.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Considering the number of prominent absentees, Canada’s team at the ninth Pan-American Games team did well to win 108 medals, 18 of them gold, even though the totals fell short of Canadian achievements at the 1979 games in Puerto Rico.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

CP Express and Transportation is closing its local depot as part of a national consolidation plan to close 17 locations and reduce the number of facilities across the country to 45.

Fire destroyed a century-old historical landmark on the main street of Portage la Prairie yesterday. The turreted two-storey brick building, originally called the Bailey Block, housed a photo studio, financial services office and three second-floor apartments.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

They were surrounded by trees, mountains and smoke, but now, after 21 days of fighting fires, 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1RCHA) soldiers have returned home. Approximately 120 1RCHA soldiers from B Battery based at CFB Shilo left for Vernon, B.C., Aug. 6. They flew into the Brandon airport yesterday after fighting fires in B.C.’s Barriere and McClure areas, alongside B.C. Forest Service firefighters. Their nights were spent catching up on much-needed sleep in modular tents large enough for an entire platoon.

Brandon has missed its first chance in more than a decade to have a film shot here, but hopes there will be another opportunity soon to use the city as a backdrop. City hall received word from Winnipeg-based Original Pictures yesterday that Brandon will not be able to be used for “The Murdoch Mysteries,” a mystery film shooting in the province. Producers, who are filming over the next two months, were not going to be able to fit the city into their shooting schedule, Mayor Dave Burgess was told.

TEN YEARS AGO

Construction of a road that city engineer Ted Snure says should have been built 15 years ago will finally begin next year. Pacific Avenue will be extended to connect 26th Street to 18th Street, a project that Snure says will take three to four years to complete at an estimated cost of $1 million.

Brandon Labour Council president Cory Szczepanski will vie for the NDP nomination in the upcoming federal byelection. Szczepanski, 36, says his current role, along with his past experience as president of the United Steel Workers Union Local 7913, have prepared him for taking the leap into federal politics.

A familiar face in the Brandon-Souris riding is once again seeking the NDP nomination. John Bouché finished second to Conservative MP Merv Tweed in both the 2011 and 2008 federal elections, and is hoping to turn the tide in the NDP’s favour in the upcoming byelection.