With the registration period for those seeking council seats in the Oct. 26 general municipal election opening last week, Kirk Dawson has been busy.

The Senior Election Official for the City of Dauphin and the Rural Municipality of Dauphin said inquiries from prospective candidates and requests for registration packages have been brisk.

“There is tons of interest. (In the City) We’ve already got five registered and none of those are incumbents,” Dawson said. “We’ve had a few other inquiries beyond that. So for the first week basically, it’s under a week actually, it’s been very active.”

At this point, registered candidates for city council include Joe Houston, Ted Rea, Michael Winter, Carter Luke and Sharon Riehl while the mayorality is being contested by David Bosiak and Kerri Riehl.

In the RM two candidates have registered with incumbent councillor Tom Gibbs entering the race for reeve while incumbent reeve Ron Ryz has registered to contest for a council seat.

“Again there are a couple of other packages out, where we’re waiting for the registrations,” Dawson added.

Prospective candidates will have an opportunity to get a better feel for the job of an elected official when the City and RM hold prospective candidates forums, at the RM of Dauphin Office, July 13, at 7 p.m. for rural candidates and at City Hall, July 14, at 7 p.m. for city candidates.

At each forum municipal staff will lay out what is involved in being a councillor in terms of duties and time commitments while the two governments have partnered to bring in former Association of Manitoba Municipalities executive director Joe Masi as a keynote speaker each night.

“He’s been around politics for a long time and he’s going to be coming out and talking about what makes good councils and what doesn’t,” Dawson said. “It’s for anybody that’s considering running, to give them a little better perspective on what it might look like if they did put their name forward.”

While he waits for other registration packages to be returned Dawson is busy preparing for polling day. Currently he is hiring voting officials and assistant voting officials. About 30 people will be needed to assist with the city election while another 10 are required to help out in the RM process.

“These are the people that work at the polls on election day and the advanced polls.” he said, adding he already has an extensive list of interested applicants.

Anyone interested in getting on that list can contact city hall at 204-622-3200 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“We’ll probably start phoning next week. We have a list of the people in the past and I’ve got several other people that have mentioned their names, but I can always take more names. It’s sort of a first come, first serve thing,” Dawson said. “We’ll certainly get their names down and as they go down the list we’ll make sure we consider them.”

The nomination period for both head of council and council positions runs Sept. 14 to 20 with Sept. 21 as the withdrawal deadline.

Advance polling runs Oct. 3 to 21, and election day is Oct. 26, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

With the beautiful weather and the strong support from sponsors and the public, it is evident to Kevin Boese the return of the Gilbert Plains- Grandview Agricultural Society’s Fair and Rodeo was meant to be.

The society president said considering the event has not been held for two years, he could not be more pleased with the result.

“I think it went really, really well. The gates were busy. It was well attended, the stands were full and we had beautiful weather the entire time,” Boese said. “Everything went very smoothly.”

The two years off did present some minor challenges for organizers as some minor details went unaddressed.

“Considering that we haven’t had a fair for two years we had kind of forgotten how to run one, but in the end everything went very smoothly,” he said. “The beer gardens were full, the sun was hot and everybody had a great time.”

Participation in the rodeo was tremendous, Boese added, with more than 200 contestants registered, along with 18 chuckwagons and 13 chariots. That was a nice surprise for Boese, who worried the cost of travel might be too much for some competitors.

“With the high gas prices that we’ve been having I was a bit concerned about people driving and showing up,” he said. “But it didn’t seem too offensive. I noticed that a bunch of guys were carpooling together and they made it work.”

The results of the chuckwagon and chariot races is available on the Manitoba Professional Chuckwagon and Chariot Association website while rodeo results will be available soon on the Heartland Rodeo Association website, Boese said. On the fair side of the equation things went well with the trade show and craft show both proving to be popular stops. Also popular was the Show and Shine Car Show in the arena and the Manitoba Junior Hockey League champion Dauphin Kings booth which saw players displaying the Turnbull Cup and posing for pictures with fans.

Other fair highlights included the light horse events and kids activities centred around the petting zoo.

Boese said plans are to grow the fair side of weekend in the coming years.

“It was a great way to start out but it’ll definitely be better and maybe arranged a little bit better, so it’s very good for next year,” Boese said, adding the time away made organizers a little rusty, but things worked out in the end. “There was just little things that we maybe kind of forgot to do and just made it a little bit more difficult on the volunteers to try and kind of step up and do things on the go that we forgot. But we powered it through and it went very well.”

Like other events which have returned following the pandemic, securing volunteers was somewhat of a concern heading in, but the people involved made it work, Boese said.

“We definitely could have used a few more volunteers, But boy oh boy the ones that showed up, did they ever work hard to get stuff done,” he said adding dedication to, and support for the event is what makes it work “Everything just went very well thanks to all the volunteers and everybody that supported us and all the great sponsorships. We have a huge team of the sponsorships that we rely on throughout the Parkland and we just couldn’t do it without them either.”

That kind of support invigorates organizers, Boese said, and they are already back at work planning for next year.

“I already sent out a group message this morning about writing down ideas to get bigger and different for next year, so it’s fresh in our minds,” he said, adding the success this year shows organizers that people want to see the event continue.

“The stands were packed full both days. We had great attendance, zero complaints about any of that. It was very well attended.”

After their scheduled celebration was rained out the weekend before, Waywayseecappo First Nation held their second annual Gay Pride parade on June 29th just in time to end off Gay Pride month.

The brightly colored floats carrying residents of all ages, made their way through the business district in Waywayseecappo and onto Hwy 45 for a short loop back. 

The parade was followed by a barbeque and dance.

More in this week's Banner!

The roar of engines and the smell of burnt tires and clutch wafted through the grounds of the Merridale Community Centre
July 1 as the Merridale Community Club hosted its first mud bog in three years. The day featured some great action which included a smoke show.

Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development is advising of additional management actions to help prevent the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
CWD was first detected in Manitoba in 2021 in five mule deer along the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. If the disease spreads and becomes endemic to Manitoba, there is a serious risk that CWD will threaten the health of all cervid populations in Manitoba.

Roblin Elementary School bid a fond farewell to the 26 members of its Grade 8 class at a final assembly, June 28.
Several students were recognized for their scholastic, athletic, music and citizenship accomplishments.

The dream of bringing a Métis musical festival to Roblin came to fruition over the July long weekend when the Roblin MMF Local hosted Li Festival Di Michif on the former St. Vlad’s grounds.
And it was a huge success.
Li Festival Di Michif brought in former residents from the Boggy Creek, San Clara and Shell River areas, along with other guests, to hear a variety of Métis music and see some old familiar faces.

There’s a new way for northern artisans to promote their work and sell it without the hassle of trying to create something on their own. Uptown Emporium 54 is a sub-organization of the Flin Flon Arts Council that offers an online platform and a storefront in Flin Flon, that showcases handcrafted items by northern artisans.
“We first opened up our shop in December of 2020,” said Uptown Emporium 54 Project Manager Sophia Charuk. “It has started because our 40th annual Arts and Crafts Sale, which is usually put on by the Flin Flon Arts Council in November, had to undergo some changes because of the pandemic. With the public health restrictions in place, there was no way it could be set up for artisans to sell their arts and crafts in a traditional way.

The grade nine art class this semester created some wonderful marionette puppets using wire, paper and paste. The project, used old newspapers from the Opasquia Times, and showed the creativity of the students.
“It was wonderful to see the students collaborating, to develop thematic ideas and help each other,” Visual Arts Specialist Pegi McGillivray commented on the student’s work.
The students not only created the marionettes, but also work to create displays for them. The work was completed prior to the June band concert held at MBCI.
“Students created backdrops in the theme of their puppets, Thank you to my students for showing so much enthusiasm and dedication,’ McGillivray commented, adding, “I had a great time working with you. Happy summer and see you in September.”

On one of the first fabulous weather days in June, the Christ Church held a Teddy Bears Picnic. The picnic welcomed teddy bears, as well as a variety of other stuffies, and their owners of all ages to joing them in games, face painting, food as well a visit from The Pas Animal Shelter puppies. Also on-site was The Pas Community Choir and Andrew Legeny and Kathy McKay, playing fiddle music.
While kids and adults alike played games and enjoyed each others company, Teddy Bears needed medical assistance for rips, tears, missing eyes or just a simple band aid on a boo boo, where welcomed at the picnic’s First Aid Station.