Looking Back — May 23, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/05/2024 (887 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Dan Bjarnason, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bjarnason of Brandon and a graduate of Brandon college, today was awarded the Kenneth R. Wilson Award for journalism graduates at Carleton University in Ottawa. The award is given to the student who shows exceptional promise as a future reporter and interpreter of Canadian affairs. Bjarnason served during the summer of 1963 on the staff of The Brandon Sun.

Mrs. R. Rae of Brandon was guest speaker at the CGIT Mother and Daughter Banquet in Rapid City recently. Rae spent five years as a missionary in India. She showed slides and spoke about her work there.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

RCMP Commissioner M.J. Nadon announced Friday that women, both married and single, and married men will be accepted into the force. Until now, recruits have been single men.

Calvary Temple will be dedicated at a ceremony this Sunday. Rev. Roy Davis, an official of Canada for Christ, will be the speaker. Mayor Bill Wilton will take part in the ceremony.

FORTY YEARS AGO

A conglomerate of area Lions clubs has offered the city $75,000 for the former Prince Edward Hotel site to build a new 108-unit senior citizens complex.

The Brandon school board will reluctantly obey provincial legislation and offer French immersion in kindergarten this September.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Brandon University’s board of governors approved a $30,000 annual membership fee to join the Western University Telecourse Consortium, which will broadcast university courses via satellite or cable television hookups beginning this September.

Brandon School Division employees have endured enough budget cuts and won’t be forced to take days off without pay during the upcoming school year, trustees decided today.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Despite a recent rejuvenation of optimism in the hog industry, a significant drop in farm applications show the industry’s growth is presently stunted. And while 2004 has brought with it a steady increase in hog prices from $115 per average hog in the first week of January to $160 in March and $200 Friday, a significant drop in barn applications in the southwest region shows industry growth has stopped.

High above the city, the female falcon sits tight on her eggs, keeping them warm as the male swoops and soars over Brandon in search of pigeons and other tasty treats. Local wildlife officials are celebrating this spring after not one, but two pairs of the endangered birds showed up within Brandon city limits earlier this month. Peregrines have been coming back to the nest at McKenzie Seeds for the last decade in what’s considered a major success story for the city’s chapter of the government’s peregrine falcon recovery plan.

TEN YEARS AGO

A 24-year-old man from the RM of North Cypress is dead following a workplace accident near Alexander early Thursday morning. Shortly after 2 a.m., RCMP responded to an industrial fatality in the RM of Whitehead, approximately 10 kilometres northwest of Alexander. “(He) was working a night shift when he became caught in an industrial machine,” RCMP media spokeswoman Tara Seel said. Local and area emergency medical services attended, but the man was declared dead at the scene.

Brandon airport officials say they will take advantage of planned upgrades to rededicate the facility as McGill Field. Although big white letters across the terminal building currently spell out “Brandon Municipal Airport,” the airport was officially renamed after local aviation pioneer Ed McGill in the early 1970s.