Looking Back — Feb. 7, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Vic Emery of Montreal led his bobsled team to Canada’s first gold medal of the 1964 Winter Olympic Games and the world championship as well today when the crackerjack four-man bobsled team hurtled to the Olympic title in its first try. The sparkling victory for Canada also counted as the 1964 world title, the first ever won by Canadians.

The highlight of the recent annual meeting of the Brandon Orange Hall Association was the presentation of a scroll and gift to president J.T. Kennedy, in office 28 years, and a scroll and gift to Fred Coates, secretary for 22 years.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

The official opening of the Manitoba Lassie Provincial Championships of the Manitoba Ladies’ Curling Association was held this morning with 16 rinks from all over the province taking part.

FORTY YEARS AGO

The 10th annual Dakota Ojibway Winter Tribal Days attracted about 7,000 people from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and the northern United States.

Terry Fowler of the Brandon Club caught a left hand from Lyndon Oochoo of the Gordon Boxing Club during their bout at the Keystone Centre sales ring last night. Oochoo, from Punnichy, Sask., won a split decision at the DOTC-Brandon Boxing Club competition.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Another regional airline has expressed an interest in the Brandon market. Officials with Saskatchewan-based Athabasca Airlines toured Brandon Airport facilities yesterday.

Brandon firefighters responded to a house fire on the 700 block of Frederick Street this afternoon. The house was gutted by the fire, which caused more than $35,000 in damage. An elderly lady at home at the time of the fire was able to escape without harm.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

New Keystone Agricultural Producers president David Rolfe calls the Farm Income Forecast for 2003, which shows a negative income for the first time in history, nothing short of “staggering.” “The decline in one year from 2002 to 2003 is $394 million out of the economy. That’s 44 per cent,” Rolfe says about Manitoba’s drop in realized net income.

TEN YEARS AGO

After smudging before school last November, Grade 11 Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School student Stephen Bunn was stopped by a teacher and asked if he had been smoking drugs. Bunn said he tried to explain the smell was from burning sage and not an illegal substance. Since then, smudging before school has landed Bunn in the principal’s office twice. Bunn said school administrators let him off with a warning but asked him to stop smudging before school because it violates their scent and fragrance-free policy.

It appears the train has left the station on the Minnedosa Heritage Committee’s bid to take over the historic train station and turn it into a seasonal museum and tourism booth. While the committee doesn’t officially meet until today to discuss Canadian Pacific Railway’s proposal to sell the station, chairman Brion Pollon said it’s highly unlikely the not-for-profit organization can agree to the financial demands. The purchase price set out in the proposal is $30,000 with a five-year lease on the land for $1,800 annually.