Editorials – Brandon Sun

Heather Stefanson, speaks to media after the completion of the 43rd Manitoba legislature throne speech at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

Stefanson lands on feet despite tarnished legacy

4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

There is something utterly unsatisfying about the political epitaph that has been written about former premier Heather Stefanson.

Manitoba’s first female premier resigned her seat in the spring of 2024, seven months after she and her Progressive Conservative party were thumped by the NDP in the 2023 election, following a disastrous campaign that doubled down on cruelty and ignorance.

The insult to self-injury came in June when the NDP captured Stefanson’s Tuxedo seat in a byelection.

If that was the last we heard of the former PC premier, it would have been a sufficiently sad end to her otherwise long career in public service. Unfortunately for Stefanson, that is not the last we heard.

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News outlets resist attack at Pentagon

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News outlets resist attack at Pentagon

4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025

It’s safe to say the current U.S. administration has crossed a line when even Trump-toadying media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax declare it has gone too far.

That’s exactly what happened this week as the Department of Defense — or, as U.S. President Donald Trump vainly/combatively prefers, the Department of War — sought to impose a new press policy on media outlets covering the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — himself a former Fox News personality — had demanded that all news outlets agree by Tuesday afternoon to abide by the policy, which states outlets must not solicit, obtain or use any unauthorized material, even if the information is not classified; in other words, never to accept or report “leaked” information, under threat that publishing of information not authorized by the Pentagon will result in revocation of press credentials.

Virtually every credible news outlet covering the Pentagon — along with some whose legitimacy is debatable — declined to sign the necessary pledge, meaning their personnel would be required to surrender their press badges and clear out their workspaces within the Defense Department headquarters.

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Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing with President Donald Trump in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A positive diplomatic step for Canada, India

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A positive diplomatic step for Canada, India

5 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025

“When we’re trying to solve difficult national issues it’s sometimes necessary to talk to adversaries as well as friends. Historians have a word for this: diplomacy.”

— Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

The Government of India has agreed to readmit a full delegation of Canadian diplomats into that nation, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand announced on Tuesday. The announcement followed a meeting in India between Anand, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials of that government. The two nations have also signed a statement outlining areas in which they intend to co-operate, including trade and artificial intelligence.

The thawing in relations between the two governments will surprise, and possibly concern, many Canadians, given that the RCMP accused the Modi government in 2023 of being involved in violent acts in Canada that allegedly included murders and acts of extortion.

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Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, speaks as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney listens before a meeting at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Just how far will Donald Trump go?

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Just how far will Donald Trump go?

4 minute read Monday, Oct. 13, 2025

In a live interview last week with CNN, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stopped talking in mid-sentence right after he uttered the phrase “plenary authority.”

Miller’s pause was so long, CNN took a commercial break. When the interview resumed, neither Miller nor the CNN host spoke of plenary authority again.

For those who have witnessed U.S. President Donald Trump’s first nine months in power, Miller’s utterance was hardly shocking. But if asserted, plenary authority — defined as a complete and absolute power — could pave the way for Trump to fully transform the U.S from a democracy to a country under authoritarian rule.

Trump officials have not formally argued in any court that the president has plenary authority. And yet, its spectre hangs over key legal disputes over the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to send in the military to suppress protests against the aggressive deportation of immigrants.

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Monday, Oct. 13, 2025

President Donald Trump speaks with members of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Machado much better choice than Trump

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Machado much better choice than Trump

5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025

In his last will and testament dated Nov. 27, 1895, as outlined on the Nobel Prize website, Alfred Nobel clearly laid out how he wanted his assets to be disbursed.

After naming a litany of family, friends and servants to receive some funds in his will, the inventor, scientist and businessman left his remaining assets — some 31 million Swedish kronor, worth hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars today — to the creation of what we now know as the Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and of course the Nobel Peace Prize.

In particular, the Nobel price for peace was to be given to a person “who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.”

This week, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the peace prize to María Corina Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

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Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025

FILE - Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025, the day before his inauguration for a third term. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Premiers who play the Canadian card when it suits them

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Premiers who play the Canadian card when it suits them

4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025

It’s an odd world Alberta Premier Danielle Smith inhabits: one where her province keeps the benefits of its natural resources, while other provinces should simply surrender the bounty of nature that may have fallen by chance in their jurisdictions to Smith’s Alberta needs.

Smith has been arguing that it’s “unCanadian and unconstitutional” for British Columbia to rebuff plans for an Alberta-sponsored pipeline to go to the British Columbia coast.

(B.C. Premier David Eby has said giving the pipeline proposal a green light when it’s merely in the planning process would upset a fragile consensus for other projects that are much further along.)

In her battle to determine just what should happen in British Columbia, Smith has gotten some help from a resource-rich neighbour, Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan.

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Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces proposed changes to several pieces of democratic process legislation in Edmonton on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

PM merely tweaked an existing program

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PM merely tweaked an existing program

6 minute read Yesterday at 10:48 PM CDT

Perhaps the greatest asset that Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney has right now is the fact that doesn’t carry the name Justin Trudeau. We’re not the first to say that, of course. In fact, that point was made in a Globe and Mail column just this week.

But really, there’s no other way to explain the rather warm reception given to Carney’s announcement on Thursday regarding proposed tougher bail and sentencing standards, which really do little more than expand upon 2023 Trudeau-era legislation — Bill C-48 —which was given royal assent on Jan. 4, 2024.

That earlier Liberal bill amended the bail provisions of the Criminal Code to — among other things — create a new reverse onus to target serious repeat violent offending involving weapons, broaden the reverse opus targeting repeat offenders of intimate partner violence, and expand the list of firearms offences that trigger a reverse onus.

It also required courts to consider an accused person’s history of convictions for violence when making a bail decision, and required courts to state on the record for any bail decision that they have considered the safety and security of the community “in relation to the alleged offence,” for the sake of public accountability.

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Yesterday at 10:48 PM CDT

Prime Minister Mark Carney visits an RCMP detachment to make an announcement in Etobicoke, Ont., on Thursday. (The Canadian Press)

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Kinew, Khan and Balcaen remarks crossed the line

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Kinew, Khan and Balcaen remarks crossed the line

5 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

The Brampton, Ont., trucker accused of causing a highway collision that killed Sara Unger, 35, and her eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, near Altona last November has been granted bail by the Manitoba provincial court, and that has angered both Premier Wab Kinew and members of the Progressive Conservative opposition.

Navjeet Singh, who had no previous criminal record in Manitoba, was released on a $7,500 surety bond signed by his cousin. He is under conditions that require him to remain at her home in Ontario, abide by a curfew and check in with RCMP in Morden weekly. He has also surrendered his driver’s licence and passport. His case is set to continue in a Morden courtroom in December.

In rendering his decision on Aug. 28, Judge Michael Clark said that “The accused is, at this point, presumed innocent and remains so until the matter is dealt with at trial … I do think the public would maintain confidence in the administration of justice if I were to release Mr. Singh on the appropriate conditions.”

It appears that the Crown has not appealed Clark’s order, and that Singh has complied with his bail conditions so far. Despite that apparent reality, Singh’s release was the subject of heated debate during question period in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

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Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

The Brandon courthouse, as shown from Princess Avenue.(File)

Economy under Carney still a ‘work in progress’

6 minute read Preview

Economy under Carney still a ‘work in progress’

6 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney began his term as Canada’s prime minister on March 14, 2025.

His swearing-in ceremony was a turn of fortune for the Liberal party that he now leads — after years of Justin Trudeau at the helm, and after feeding on a steady diet of political vitriol from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Canadians were eyeing a change in government.

But Carney played the Captain Canada card, leaning into his reputation as a deft economist during his roles as the governor of the Bank of Canada and eventually the Bank of England. Sporting hockey metaphors of “elbows up,” he was given a mandate to energize this country’s sleepy economy, and — simultaneously — to cross swords with U.S. President Donald Trump on our behalf, even as we faced an economic and existential threat from our southern neighbours.

Seven months on, it’s worth taking stock of our situation now.

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Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during an announcement regarding federal assistance at the Newdock Shipyard in St. John's on Sept. 8. (The Canadian Press files)

Rise in political violence threatens the rule of law

4 minute read Preview

Rise in political violence threatens the rule of law

4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

“We need as Canadians to open our eyes and recognize that political violence is not something that just occurs somewhere else, but that it is happening here in our own communities.”

— Former federal public safety minister Marco Mendicino

One of the dangers facing anyone who decides to stand for public office in today’s highly polarized political climate is that sooner or later someone will take exception to something they say or do, and decide to act out.

And depending on how controversial the actions or comments, or how ferocious the public sentiment against an individual may be, that action can manifest in varying degrees of violence.

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Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

It seems clear that the targeting of Nahanni Fontaine’s office was an intimidation tactic against the families minister. (File)

Don’t expect provincial red ink to end soon

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Don’t expect provincial red ink to end soon

4 minute read Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

Manitobans concerned about their province’s fiscal health can be forgiven for feeling a bit overwhelmed over the past week. A fire hose of numbers, forecasts and commentary was unleashed on citizens, no doubt causing both concern and confusion.

Let’s start with Premier Wab Kinew and the fiscal metrics he faces as he hits the two-year anniversary of his government.

In a Sept. 26 Winnipeg Free Press interview, the premier acknowledged that Manitoba’s fiscal status was a “mixed bag.” Within days of that statement, that mixed bag began to reveal itself.

The release of the 2024-25 public accounts — the definitive and final accounting of government finances for the year ending March 31, 2025 — showed the province’s deficit was $1.1 billion, $353-million higher than forecast. This was surprising, because Manitoba received an unexpected $421-million windfall from a settlement with tobacco companies.

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Monday, Oct. 6, 2025

Premier Wab Kinew announces the release of Manitoba’s new economic development strategy in Winnipeg. Tom Brodbeck writes that Manitoba is becoming more reliant on funding from Ottawa, which makes Kinew’s recent rhetoric about becoming a “have” province “not just fanciful but completely detached from reality.” (Mike Deal/Winnipeg Free Press files)

NDP failing to fix health care

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NDP failing to fix health care

4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

The Brandon Regional Health Centre was scheduled to go without a surgeon between 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. yesterday. For an entire 24-hour period, the closest emergency department with a surgeon would be in Dauphin or Winnipeg.

The public only learned of the problem when the issue was raised during question period in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly on Thursday by both Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen and Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook.

“Patients who need surgery will either be forced to wait up to 24 hours, travel to Dauphin if Dauphin has capacity, or travel to Winnipeg,” Cook said. She asked “How could the minister have failed to see this coming, and how could they have failed to take action to prevent it?”

It was a valid question, but the response fell far short of acceptable. Instead of explaining why the staffing shortage occurred and assuring Manitobans that it would not happen again, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara attempted to blame the previous PC government for the problem.

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Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province’s messaging surrounding the measles outbreak has been adapted to meet people ‘where they’re at.’ (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Canada Post strike ignores hard reality

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Canada Post strike ignores hard reality

4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025

This appears to be a classic case of failing to “read the room.”

In the ongoing dispute between Canada Post and its unionized employees, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has adopted a position that seems either inexplicably unmindful or intentionally heedless of the current realities facing the Crown corporation.

In a decidedly grim announcement last week, Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound directed Canada Post to adopt massive cost-cutting measures, including an end to door-to-door mail delivery and the closure of some rural post offices.

Note that this decision marks a return to the cost-cutting measures of the former Conservative federal government of a decade before, where the Harper government was moving ahead with ending door-to-door deliveries. As Liberal leader at the time, Justin Trudeau campaigned against the move to community mailboxes in 2015, and soon cancelled the plan once he became prime minister.

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Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025

Canada Post signage and parked vehicles are seen at a Canada Post mail sorting facility during nation-wide strike action in Ottawa, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. The U.S. Postal Service has suspended accepting mail headed to Canada due to the strike by Canada Post workers.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Brandon comes full circle on mental health support

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Brandon comes full circle on mental health support

6 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025

Thirty years ago, the goal of mental health reform in Brandon was apparently crystal clear.

The closure of the Brandon Mental Health Centre on the North Hill would remove a community stigma — an impediment to people who needed care.

Instead, patient care would be shifted out of the institution and into the community, where people could live their lives as normally and freely as possible, while being supported by a newly formed network of government supports.

And those supports would be there, with proper funding — we were told as much by the Progressive Conservative government that was responsible for implementing the recommendations of mental health professionals.

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Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025

The former Brandon Mental Health Centre was finally mothballed in the late 1990s, and in its stead several other organizations have been responsible for the mental health of Brandon and western Manitoba. (Submitted)

Medical complaints must be addressed

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Medical complaints must be addressed

4 minute read Sunday, Sep. 28, 2025

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba says patient safety is “top of mind.”

As the regulatory body whose role is (according to the CPSM’s own website), “to protect the public as consumers of medical care and promote the safe and ethical delivery of quality medical care by physicians in Manitoba,” one might fairly expect nothing less. Protecting and promoting patient safety is the organization’s sole reason for being.

The numbers, however, suggest something different. As has been reported this week, the college currently has more than 225 open investigations related to complaints from Manitobans regarding medical treatment they’ve received, and at present has just one investigator tasked with conducting those investigations.

The magnitude of the backlog became apparent after a Winnipeg man revealed to the Free Press that his complaint of “severe harm caused by medical neglect” has taken more than a year to move forward, and the college informed him his case is among more than 225 currently awaiting investigation.

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Sunday, Sep. 28, 2025

Dr. Guillaume Poliquin confirmed Wednesday the college has more than 225 open investigations and one investigator. A solution to this problem must be delivered quickly to prevent confidence in provincial health care from further eroding. (Ruth Bonneville/Winnipeg Free Press files)

Ambitious goals aren’t backed by performance

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Ambitious goals aren’t backed by performance

5 minute read Saturday, Sep. 27, 2025

“We’ve set an ambitious target — to make Manitoba a ‘have’ province by 2040.”

— Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, September 2025

Given yesterday’s fiscal update by the Manitoba government, it’s hard not to question the optimistic tone that Premier Wab Kinew offered just one day earlier when he pledged to make Manitoba more productive.

Not only did the province run a higher-than-expected deficit in the last fiscal year at $1.1 billion — $353 million more than it originally forecast — it’s also likely to miss this year’s target too, as it now forecasts a deficit of $890 million. That number balloons this year’s expected deficit $96 million past the government’s original forecast last spring.

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Saturday, Sep. 27, 2025

October 18, 2025

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