Tagged: Manitoba
Obby Khan is a Sellout
- by Alyson Shane
Today my band, Big Trouble in Little Wolseley, put out a new song.
It's a cover of a Less Than Jake song called "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts" and ours is called
"Obby Khan is a Sellout"
because he is.
Obby Khan is a politician from Manitoba, where I live, and during the pandemic the Provincial Conservative government announced that they were giving out $1.5 million in grants to support local businesses since many brick-and-mortar stores couldn't stay open during the lockdowns.
Obby Khan was awarded $500,000 of that money to fund what is basically a delivery service for local items called GoodLocal.
But GoodLocal never really helped anyone. Most businesses had e-commerce set up already.
Later that year, Obby Khan ran as a PC candidate and got elected.
Earlier this year he made the news again by claiming he was shoved by Wab Kinew, the leader of Manitoba's New Democratic Party (NDP) even when video evidence showed that it never happened.
Obby Khan is 6"2 and Wab Kinew is 5'7, but apparently Obby Khan is "scared" of him
(which is really just a racist dog whistle that perpetuates the "scary native" persona the PCs are trying to paint him with since Kinew is Indigenous)
it's gross and disappointing to see someone being such an obvious lackey to a government that is refusing to negotiate with nurses, that's closed ERs, and is playing into far-right rhetoric about "parental rights" like the Republicans are doing in the States.
Obby Khan is a sellout and doesn't deserve to represent Manitobans
and that's what this song is about.
Enjoy and if you live in Manitoba, don't forget to vote so we can kick these
racist
bigoted
corrupt
losers out of office.
Left the house the other day
- by Alyson Shane
to spend a week at a cabin out at Falcon Lake because we haven't gone anywhere since before Christmas.
We drove up on Monday night and stopped at Gimli Fish on the way out to get crab legs and lobster tail and the biggest scallops I've ever seen, and after unpacking and getting a fire going we sauteed it all up in a butter and garlic sauce and ate it with a salad and a bottle of rosé.
We stayed up late and got drunk and cold running back and forth from the private hot tub on the deck to the house to get more beer. I had a killer hangover the next morning but powered through 100 pages of The Count of Monte Cristo
(I'm almost 950 pages in!)
and popped an Advil so we could hike up the side of the mountain that overlooks the lake.
I haven't walked that much in months and felt it the next day. It was worth it for the view tho.
After so many months in the house it was weird to have so much space to
think
and spread out
and walk
and not worry about other people.
We heard some families in the other cabins and waved at a few of the staff from afar, but it was mostly just us and the deer and the birds. I loved waking up and putting fresh birdseed in the bird feeder every morning to see what kinds of birds showed up to eat.
(Did you know that bluejays aren't actually blue? Look it up!)
That night we grilled homemade burgers and had some special banana bread that put us to bed at 10 PM. I fell asleep watching Robocop (which has so many gun sounds, wow) and woke up at 7 AM feeling more rested than I have in months.
The next day walked out to an island.
It gets so cold in Manitoba that the lake freezes completely and you can walk right across the ice to a bunch of the little islands, which feels scary until you've done it a few times
(or have a few beers in you.)
The island was beautiful and scenic, but spooky too. There's a menacing beauty to the Canadian wilderness. It feels tough and rugged, like it will kill you if you let it
(which it will.)
Then we came back and played Scrabble and made out in the hot tub and I laughed until my face hurt. We got distracted and almost burnt the shit out of our homemade taquitos, but saved them in time and covered them in sour cream and the enchilada sauce I made before we left to cover up the "extra crunch".
John made breakfast every day. Egg sandwiches or scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage. One, sometimes two coffees with Jameson's. We ate sitting across the table from each other and I grinned at him like a maniac every time because after almost seven years together I'm still crazy about him.
After dinner every night we sat in the hot tub, soaking it all in. I tried as hard as I could to lock in how the cold air felt, and the way my beer tasted, and how John's hair caught in the light.
On our last day there he asked me "what are some moments you wish you could stay frozen in forever?" and because I'm cheesy and because it was true, I said
"this one, right now" and I meant it.
If I close my eyes it's almost like I'm back there and I wanna hang onto that feeling so badly.
Supporting My Community: MBCouldBe and Pride 2015
- by Alyson Shane
Somehow on a random Wednesday I found myself wide awake at 5am. As I was lying in bed cuddling Toulouse and listening to John snore softly (it's adorable, seriously) I started thinking about community, how important it is to make the time to make your values known, and to support causes that you believe in.
This past weekend I volunteered at #MBCouldBe, a policy summit put on by Manitoba Forward. I volunteered with John and Luke Jacob, and we spent the day listening to various speakers and panel discussions and tweeting from the Manitoba Forward twitter account (as well as our own, of course).
(All of us setting up for a busy day of Tweeting.)
When I arrived I wasn't sure to expect; what sorts of people would be there? What would their views be? Was I just walking into a giant, one-sided political discussion?
What I found surprised me: I met a diverse group of individuals and speakers who were all interested in actively discussing ("actively" is putting it lightly in some cases) the ways in which Manitoba could work towards being a more successful and vibrant province. I was impressed at the variety of speakers at the event: some were obviously very centre-right, some much more liberal in their views, and the discussion that took place was positive and informative.
What impressed me the most, though, was the sheer amount of people that came out on a warm June afternoon on a Saturday, while events like Jazz Fest were going on and patios were abound, to sit in an event centre and discuss Manitoba's future.
This was important to me for several reasons, the largest of which is that as a Manitoban I was raised with a very healthy sense of self-deprecation, which I've written about before. Manitobans can be snarky and we can be cynical, especially about our own hometown and our province. We're raised with the belief that Winnipeg, and Manitoba on a larger scale, simply isn't worth the energy. Why put time into improving our local economy or starting a small business here when we can just run off to Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver?
I used to have that mindset. Not so long ago I was dead-set on moving to Toronto, where I have some family. I was going to leave Winnipeg in my dust and make it big in Ontario. Then something changed: I took a class at the University of Winnipeg called (appropriately enough) "The History of Winnipeg" which completely changed my views.
When I started spending time getting to know the complexities of the city and the province where I grew up, I started to develop a deeper understanding of why our issues were unique, and for the rich, beautiful history we have here and the strong, creative, interesting people decide to spend their lives here. I fell head-over-heels with Winnipeg, and decided that I wanted to stay and invest my time, my business and my life to helping make it a better place.
Many Manitobans still have that negative mindset, unfortunately, but among the people that I spoke to and who participated at #MBCouldBe I didn't hear a single dissenting voice. Instead I heard a ton of local pride, and even when we discussed ways in which we could be better, it was always with hope and with a fierce sense of dedication to making Manitoba an even better place to work and to live.
--
Another way I experienced local pride this weekend was the following day, when I marched in the 2015 Pride Parade. New Media Manitoba sponsored a banner in the Pride Parade and I tweeted about it and marched with my friends in support of the LGBT community.
There were over a thousand people who showed up in costume and with banners and floats, and the outpouring of love and support for the LGBT community is what makes Pride one of my favourite annual events - I've been going since I was allowed to start taking the bus downtown from the suburbs where I grew up.
Someone once said to me "we march in the Pride Parade so that one day we don't need one." As in, by raising awareness and support got the LGBT community with the parade, eventually they hope that society will become accepting of those individuals to the point where a parade is no longer necessary. The whole point of the annual Pride week is to mobilize support for the LGBT community and to show people that there are people who support the rights and freedoms of others to express themselves and to be who they are, regardless of what (if any) gender they identify with.
--
This morning, while watching the dawn creep into my bedroom it struck me that half of showing your support is simply showing up. It's very easy to play Armchair Activist (and we all do, to some extent) but by taking the time out of our daily lives to physically show up and show support for our local communities -be they political, social, sexual, whatever- we help make the world a better place because we add our voices and our bodies to causes that matter to us.
I spent my past weekend, almost in it's entirety, lending my time and my energy to causes that I believe in and it felt amazing. It was a terrific reminder that, really, all we need to do to start making our communities a better place is show up and get involved.
Have you attended any local events in your community lately? What were they for? I'd love to hear about them!
Still on a bit of a high since MBlog
- by admin
aka the New Media Manitoba Blogger's Conferenceaka #NMMBlog
aka that panel I spoke at on the Friday night with the James Hope Howard, Liz Hover, and Colin Fast aka @policyfrog.
It was also MC'd by my buddy Kenton Larsen -hello!
We fielded the usual questions -where we can be found online, our thoughts on the future of blogging, etc
(Liz got into a heated debate with one of the audience members as you can see in the photo)
Overall it went pretty well.
The crowd was fantastic & engaged and I feel like we covered some really interesting and relevant topics.
I just wish we'd had more time -panels always start to get good right towards the end, don't they? That's when everyone gets fired up!
I had to jet to a million other things that night so I couldn't stick around, but I managed to make it to the daytime event the next day in time to catch Liz's interview with The Bloggess, who was even more charming and clever in person than on her blog which I didn't think was possible.
I sat with my homie James and we took dumb photos. Obviously.
It was really cool & inspiring to see local people talk about their experiences and share their stories, and to put faces to so many avatars and profiles that I've creeped online for so long. It was a fantastic day and I feel so honoured to have been asked to be a part of it!
Biggest thanks go out to Alison Kirkland from the Women's Enterprise Centre of Manitoba, Kathy Driscoll of New Media Manitoba, and of course the dear Kenton Larsen for having me!
xox yr Shaner
The MB Music Music Rocks bonspiel has left me mildly crippled (but it wa
- by admin
I should also not that it's in the weirdest place possible: behind my right kneecap.It's also led me to the startling realization that my job isn't as sedentary as I would have previously claimed because getting up a million times to go of the fucking printer hurt like a bitch
But enough about my lady pains (wait what) here's photographic evidence of stuff we did yesterday:
John used the booze phone on the ice.
(Best sport ever or what?!)
Other teams had amazing names.
(Ours was "Get Your Rocks Off" for those interested)
Trophies were presented.
(We didn't win any)
We also had a pose-off on the ice.
(And by that I mean John had a pose-off)
Obligatory shot of the sheets.
(Not "lanes"!)
The Sweeper Mario Bros won best costume.
(For obvious reasons)
The House Burglars, who won the gold and played against us on the first draw.
(They were also AMAZINGLY NICE and I'm so glad that they won)
Props to Manitoba Music for organizing the bonspiel and the Granite Curling Club for being a fantastic venue to toss some stones!|
Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go soak my leg in a bath and read some Vonnegut. Oye.
Gail Asper has a message for you
- by admin
she's the President of the CanWest Global Foundation and President and Trustee of The Asper Foundation
she has the flow of Colin Mochrie
and she wants you to get yr Manitoban asses in gear and go vote.
all the while proving that the only middle-ages white people who should be rapping
are The Beastie Boys.
