Daily ritual, lifelong connection Readers reflect on what the Free Press means to them Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2022 (664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the eve of the Free Press’s sesquicentennial, we asked readers to share what the newspaper means to them.

We were overwhelmed by both the number of responses and the range and depth of personal reflections.

It’s a relationship that has spanned decades for many readers and is one we don’t take for granted.

So grab yourself a coffee (it’s the preferred beverage for consuming the news, according to many contributors) and enjoy a sampling of what readers have to say.

(In some cases, responses were edited for clarity and length.)

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I love the Free Press for so many reasons. As a lifelong Winnipegger and a faithful subscriber, I look forward to reading the paper every day, Monday to Saturday with the actual paper in my hands and digitally on Sundays and holidays.

It disturbs me when I frequently hear people comment about distrust of “the media.” From 1998-2008, I led the Manitoba Nurses’ Union. Although not as dire as the situation is now, there were nursing shortages, mandated overtime and other health-care issues that concerned nurses. We felt strongly that to care for a nurse was to care for their patients as well.

Not once in the time that I held the position of president of the nurses’ union was I ever misquoted. I was interviewed often during that time and even if a particular columnist didn’t agree with my position, it was always clearly stated and I never felt they didn’t get the story right.

Keep up the great work you do to bring the news to the people in our province.

— Maureen Hancharyk

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I have a very yellowed and tattered piece of newsprint from Father’s Day weekend in 1967 that featured my entry, as well as 11 others, that won an Eaton’s “Draw Your Dad” contest. I keep it in the oversized mug the winners received. My name also appeared in the list of participants in the first Habitat for Humanity Women’s Build in 2005 and later that year a photo of me with Mickey Moose taken at a charity golf tournament made the paper.

I read the Free Press every day; online during the week and on paper on Saturdays (still the best way to read a newspaper). I feel proud, privileged and grateful that I live in a city and province that continue to support the independent and excellent newspaper the Winnipeg Free Press is. May you continue informing and educating us for at least another 150 years.

— Gloria Lasko

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I have been a reader and supporter of the Winnipeg Free Press since I was a toddler, and that began many, many years ago. My father read the colour comics to me and had me find certain words and circle them on the front page of the paper. That’s how I began to recognize words and learn to read.

When I was an elementary teacher, I had students bring their families’ copies of the paper to class and we searched for words, found articles on current affairs and used them for research. It was one way to teach students the who, what, when, where, why and how of writing.

I find the newspaper and its staff provide balanced and insightful reporting. I have been interviewed by reporters a number of times in my lifetime and have always found them to be professional. Their articles are well-written and I have never been misquoted! I continue to be a proud daily reader of the Winnipeg Free Press!

— Dorothy Young

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I have read the Free Press for as long as I can remember. As a young boy, much to the chagrin of my mother, I used to spread it out on our living room floor and devour its contents.

Years later nothing has changed, except now I sit in an easy chair where I start my day by reading the paper.

I value good journalism, balanced reporting, transparency and accountability, all of which are embodied in the Free Press.

— Mac Horsburgh

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I begin each day reading the Free Press and I find it makes for a lovely start to my day. I feel calmed, regardless of how dire the stories may be, and informed. The urgency behind some of the stories motivates me to help improve conditions for people and the environment. When we look at the issues before us today, never before has free speech and a free press been so important and relevant. Keep up the great work — it matters.

— Ted Muir

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My Free Press is the heartbeat of Manitoba, an important connection and a reflection of who we are as a community in the Prairie centre of Canada.

— Carol Reznik

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In 2012, I was on an international teacher’s fellowship in Winnipeg, teaching in the north of the city. Apart from acclimatizing to the winter and driving with the steering wheel on a different side, it was a humbling and, at times, wild ride.

Always an avid fan of newspapers, I missed the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, dearly. When I discovered the Free Press, the first thing that struck me was its size and shape, but I soon realized it was my connection to this city, its people, and this Prairie slice of Canada.

That was the year the Jets returned, so the sports pages were such a celebration of homecoming and what Manitoba had lost. The drastic repercussions of the 2010-11 floods were still being strongly felt, and I read many articles about the re-planning of Manitoba’s waterways, and the courage and resilience of many Manitobans, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. The paper was a great way to discuss political, social, environmental and arts issues with teacher colleagues.

A decade later, after eventually meeting and marrying a commercial ice fisherman in the west Interlake in 2016, the Free Press is still my link provincially, nationally and to the wider world. As we live off the grid, our window to the world is radio and newspapers. It’s the unbiased and thought-provoking journalism of the Free Press that lets us consider and discuss many issues with other Manitobans, especially through the height of the pandemic.

— Judith McCudden

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As a subscriber of many years, there has been no time when I appreciated the delivery of my paper more than during the pandemic lockdown. With no people coming in and out of my house, the appearance of my daily newspaper on the veranda reassured me people were still out there doing things to make our lives feel normal, when life at the time was anything but that.

There are days now when I don’t have time to read the entire paper, but I am so grateful for its delivery when we were housebound, that I can’t imagine not continuing to be a hard-copy subscriber. Online on Sunday is OK, but I want a real paper the rest of the week.

And whether in print or online, a published newspaper still is and always will be foundational to sharing news and views with the city’s population in a democracy. Congratulations on 150 years of publishing history and may the Winnipeg Free Press continue to prosper.

— Patricia Holbrow

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My dad and mom ran the Emerson Journal, a weekly publication, when I was growing up. We subscribed to both Winnipeg papers and several weekly publications. As a result, I grew up with newspapers every day. It left me with a love of newspapers.

During the pandemic, my one constant, six days a week, was the Free Press appearing in my mailbox. I can not emphasize enough how much this meant to me. It was such a wonderful start to the day. And then in the evening it was the daily letter from the editor. It brought a little normalcy to these stressful times.

Congratulations to the Winnipeg Free Press on 150 years of bringing us the news. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

— Shirley Canty

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My relationship with the Free Press began when I was a child. What started with looking for the comics eventually turned into being educated about the Meech Lake Accord when I was 11. This hooked me on wanting to learn more about current events and is why I firmly believe in the importance of strong, accessible, local news coverage like the Free Press continues to provide.

I now look on with appreciation and pride as my children look over my shoulder every Saturday to read the editorials and letters to the editor with me. Their questions about the stories and opinions lead to stimulating conversation and education. Thank you for continuing to give my children what so enriched me as a child and continues to do so.

— Chris Hildebrand

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I write this en route back home to Winnipeg, after spending the past month travelling across Western Canada. It’s my first such foray in 2 ½ years.

There is no shortage of criticism of our fair city, predominantly the short-sighted conservatism that runs through the fabric of our community.

But I devour news and media coverage wherever I go and the Free Press stands above any coverage I’ve encountered in my travels. Thank you.

— Terry Toews

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So there I was, staring down at a live, two-metre long alligator, stretched out on a lime-green shag carpet in a Kenora family’s living room. When the reptile’s owner left the room to fetch something, “George” as the family pet was known, began to growl. I reached for a dining room chair and stood on the seat, hoping I would not become George’s next meal and that I would survive to tell this extraordinary tale.

As the owner, whose name I can no longer recall, told me, she had purchased George (then just a few inches long) in the pet department at Winnipeg’s Eaton’s department store for her young son who longed for a pet, but who suffered from allergies. As the years passed George grew… and grew. But the family just couldn’t part with him.

The owner insisted that he was harmless, unless she was preparing fish for dinner. That would send George into a frenzy, so she had to lock him in the family bathroom until the meal was finished.

I took pictures and made plenty of notes. And after returning to Winnipeg, I contacted Clive Roots, who was then head of the Winnipeg Zoo. He told me that any caiman (a species akin to alligators), as George turned out to be, that was larger than a cat, should be handled by professionals using nets.

It all made for a great story for an inexperienced young reporter who was at the beginning of his career at the Winnipeg Free Press. There were other stories like it. Back then, every day was an adventure. I was attached to general assignment, which meant that in the morning, assistant city editor David Lee, or city editor Barry Mullin, would send me out into the community to dig up a story for the following day’s paper.

For a young person, this was a gift. A licence to step into the unimagined lives of urban reptile owners, politicians, bikers, naturists and just about anyone else who had a story deemed to be worth telling. It was a crash course in life. And it often wasn’t fun. Sometimes it meant speaking to people whose family were dealing with the loss of a loved one in a fire or an accident.

I didn’t know it then, but the seven years I spent in the Free Press newsroom played a major part in the making of a journalist and a man. At a big daily newspaper, life experiences come and go in quick time in an existence ruled by daily deadlines. And I will forever be grateful to the patient copy editors who coped with my inexperience and my penchant for spelling errors. Once, assistant city editor Lee sent me outside to do some laps around the Free Press building on Carlton Street to avoid the wrath of managing editor Don Nichol, who had spotted spelling errors in a story I had just rushed into print for the morning edition of the paper.

In those days, there were two editions of the Free Press, one produced in the morning and one updated and sent out for home delivery. Many other things have changed since then. The newsroom of the early ’80s was home to a cast of unforgettable characters. John McManus was the aviation reporter (he covered the airport), while Elman Guttormson covered horse racing. But the greatest difference from contemporary newsrooms was the absence of the internet, as we know it. Every day Esme Langer, the chief librarian, and her team would clip stories from the paper and place them in manila envelopes in a vast library that was next to the fourth-floor newsroom.

Once assigned a story, a reporter would pull the pocket and read through the clippings for background. Google has changed all of that and so much more for newspapers everywhere. Now, background on any story is just a click away. And many fine papers have folded while others like the Free Press have been forced to adapt to rapid change brought about by the Information Age.

As a youngster in the ’60s, I remember on hot summer afternoons sitting with my friends — all newspaper delivery kids — and eating Fudgsicles outside the Mini Mart on Academy Road while we waited for our thick bundles of the Free Press to arrive. Saturday papers were massive. Inches deep. We struggled to carry them around our paper route in the wagons of our childhood that we brought from home. Back then, just about everyone enjoyed home delivery of either the Free Press or its rival, the Winnipeg Tribune.

Now, the Saturday edition is a little thinner and like many others I read my subscription online. But the Free Press remains a great paper and a vital part of the ongoing dialogue that is so essential to the health of our community. In an age when newspapers everywhere are in a fistfight for survival, the efforts of hard-working journalists are unjustly labelled as “fake news” and the truth is under constant attack, we’ve never needed the Free Press more to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

One more thing. There was a happy ending for George, who, if I remember correctly, finally wound up on a game farm near Dauphin.

Happy 150th!

— Andy Blicq

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One of the best things about living in Manitoba is your wonderful, old newspaper. Very few Canadian citizens have the daily luxury of being able to read an independently owned newspaper like the Winnipeg Free Press that has been with their province almost from the beginning. I put the Free Press in the same category as our wonderful historic buildings, our trees and rivers, and our diverse and outspoken population.

Your editors and journalists are free to investigate news stories and report them truthfully as they see fit without fear of displeasing the billionaires who own a whole stable of presses. No one from the premier on down is free from your unvarnished coverage; complimentary when praise is due, and plain-speaking criticism when it is not.

Your Saturday edition is particularly noteworthy. I enjoy the wide variety of subjects covered in it including history, science, arts, cooking, literature, sports, politics and religion, as well as my favourite crossword puzzles to name a few. The letters to the editor section the many other opportunities, such as this one, are important as they encourage readers to express personal views. They allow us to share our thoughts with others, to feel like citizens who can make a difference. Congratulations on your 150th anniversary and thank you all for helping to make Winnipeg and all of Manitoba the exceptional place it is.

— Doris Ames

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The Free Press is one of my windows on our world — locally and globally. For six decades I’ve read the headlines, checked who was born, married, celebrated or who had died. I’ve relied on your reporters, photographers, editors and columnists to show and tell me what our city was up to, where to go for entertainment, and what to read and view.

Reading the letters to the editors is often revealing and a way to get a look into what others care about and to get a feel for the pulse of fellow citizens. I’ve had a few letters published and it’s satisfying to have an outlet when you feel strongly about a subject.

We still get the Saturday paper delivered and read the other editions online, which is a nice way to blend the traditional and the digital.

I thoroughly admire Paul Samyn’s writing and perspectives. The COVID coverage is just what we need. Thanks for giving us the news every day. Congratulations on 150 years! Well done.

— Eileen Gibson

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Plain and simple, receiving the paper every morning makes me feel connected to the rest of the city. Thank you for your continued news stories.

— Linda Winmill

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It’s my go-to for local. It’s an unbiased take on the pulse of the city.

I trust the investigative reporting. Integrity comes to mind.

— Janis Arnold

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For me the Winnipeg Free Press is like the air I breathe. I feel like I take it for granted and that it’s something that has always been and always will be a natural part of my life. As time goes on though, I realize how precious it is, like the air I breathe, and how they both give me a sense of connection to other humans in the Winnipeg community. I wonder if others are as outraged about some events and occurrences or as moved to tears and laughter as I am. I wonder if others really see the humour in some of the daily comic strips the way I do. I wonder if others who attack the puzzle pages daily see what I see.

— Cynthia Kowal

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New to Winnipeg in 1983, I started reading the Winnipeg Free Press to help me understand Winnipeg and Manitoba. And to a large extent, the Free Press has done just that. Almost 40 years later, I can’t imagine living in Winnipeg without the Free Press and its smart and comprehensive coverage of all things Winnipeg and Manitoba.

— Georgina Garrett

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The Free Press holds a special place in my life. I lived in Winnipeg for 50 years. As a kid growing up, I looked forward to the paper for its daily comics and especially the comics on Saturday. As a teenager I would look up special items such as the daily “quote” contest and pictures of my friends and me for “Walk for Millions.” Then, my graduations from schooling were posted in the Free Press. My engagement and wedding announcements were also placed in the Free Press. After moving from Winnipeg, I continued to follow the newspaper for information pertinent to me. Notice of my husband’s passing was placed in the Free Press to notify friends. During COVID-19 I received daily briefs — emails from Paul Samyn at the Free Press — for a round-up of pandemic-related developments so I could follow what family and friends were living through as I lived through COVID in another province. For most of my life, I have appreciated the Free Press. I wish the Free Press a happy anniversary as it celebrates 150 years! Congratulations!

— Sandra Trubyk

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As a lonely student at the University of Manitoba in the late 1980s, my twice-weekly lunchtime companion was the Manitoban, which could always be relied on for insightful coverage and opinion, as well as some beautiful photography. To my great delight, today many of those same journalists and photographers now make up a substantial portion of the staff of the Winnipeg Free Press — even those with voices so distinct and disparate from one another that you would not think they could collaborate for the same publication. Yet it is exactly that diversity of opinion, together with the curiosity and the incisive spirit of inquiry that continues to inform, entertain, provoke and hold those in power accountable. I’m not a lonely student anymore, but in my opinion, this is the best Free Press editorial board and staff ever, at least in my lifetime. Long may you scribble and snap.

— Thomas Steur

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I started to read a newspaper while attending grade school. Students in social studies classes were tasked with reading an article in front of their classmates and answer who, what, where, when, why and how. My parents would give me a dime and I would walk to the end of our street to get a paper from the box. My dad would read it first before I could cut it up for my assignment.

Years later, the paper was delivered to our house. I no longer had assignments, no need to search for articles. On the weekends there would be a struggle with my brother over who got the colour comic section first. I can remember many weekends when we gathered in the front room reading the paper. A few years later I started job hunting through the classified section of the paper. It was answering an ad for a “Gal Friday” wanted that led to the next 30 years of my life and a wedding. I would not have met my husband if there was no ad in the classified section or no Free Press.

The printed paper has been a source of information where I can learn things, find things and discover things, as well as a source of entertainment. I appreciate the variety of topics that sometimes causes a person to pause and think. I have cut out tips, recipes, announcements and stories that have meaning for me.

Decades ago there was a story about Victorian Order of Nurses nurses who helped new mothers. Dr. Bowman delivered a premature son to my parents and their story made it into the paper.

Years later there was a story about trade shows held in the city. An article featured ShoDor where my brother worked and a picture of him clowning around with the display doors made it into the paper.

Years later there were many stories about flooding in the city. A picture of my brother on a sandbag line made it into the paper.

The paper was important to my husband who would read the obits and if he saw a name he knew he would be sure to attend the funeral service. But in the last years of his life the paper became something else as his dementia got worse. The paper was recognition of a new day. We would sit together and I would help him read it.

— Wendy Bunio

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Happy 150th, Free Press, and thank you. The daily paper has probably been the most consistent thing in my life and as such is as much a daily comfort as it is a source of intelligent, informative journalism, and I’m very grateful you are still here and thriving.

One of my first memories (and there’s a great photo of it that assists my recollection) is lying on the living room floor of our west Winnipeg home, “reading” the comics with my dad (with CBC’s As It Happens on the radio nearby). We saved the comics for last — a habit I still have. Never underestimate how important the funny pages are to some readers!

On a Labour Day weekend in the mid-1990s, I made the front page, much to my astonishment. Or rather, my dog did — she was the star. I was working at Holy Trinity Anglican Church downtown and Lindor Reynolds called the office to ask about our pet blessing service. It turned into an interview and photo shoot, which I thought would end up in the Faith section. I was gobsmacked to see us on the front page — but that dear puggy was very photogenic.

A sadder recollection is of the day there were two editions — Sept. 11, 2001. I remember being thankful my daughter was still too young to realize the import of there being a second paper that day.

One weekly ritual that likely stems from my time working in the church is a thorough read of the obituaries. There’s a lot to be learned there, and a lot singular to our community. For a while I kept a tally of how many obits mentioned perogies. (There’s at least one a week, by the way.)

Thank you for being an eagerly awaited part of my daily routine all my life. The Free Press is part of why I’m proud to be part of this very individual, quirky, thoughtful, creative and challenging Prairie community.

— Pat Jackson

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I have been a Free Press subscriber since 1996 and must say I cannot start my morning without reading the paper from cover to cover with my coffee. It keeps me in the know on what’s happening in our city and the rest of the world. And I know I can trust the Free Press to report the truth in whatever story they are covering.

— Flo St. Laurent

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My husband passed away years ago and I’ve been retired a long time, so I have become accustomed to living on my own and indulging in my hobbies. I’m an early riser and love waking to the smell of brewed coffee and the knowledge my print edition of the Free Press is at my door. I read the whole thing and do almost all the puzzles. More than once I’ve contributed a letter to the editor and many times it’s inspired me to research a subject further. While I appreciate the online edition it just does not cut it for me, and unlike most people who look forward to long weekends, I bemoan the fact another stat holiday means no paper newspaper! My older sister, who has neither a cellphone nor a computer, is left completely bereft! We grumble about the increased cost of everything but don’t begrudge the Free Press a dime. So on behalf of us both, thank you so much for your many years of service and here’s wishing you many more.

— Susan Leigh

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When I moved to Winnipeg in 2011 to co-lead the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (with artistic director Steven Schipper) I was thrilled to discover the depth, breadth and frequency of arts and culture coverage in the Free Press. For arts and culture producers in town, the Freep’s steady commitment to amplifying, previewing and reviewing is a great gift.

For Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival artists — local and from away — the sheer audacity of the expansive Fringe coverage means producers get a genuine opportunity to celebrate their show and find their audience, and those inches of reviews (and star ratings) are quoted in grant applications, artist statements and promotion for future shows for years to come.

When the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre wanted to make a big splash announcing Kelly Thornton as our new artistic director, we leaned on the team at the Free Press to launch the story with a bang. It involved a 6 a.m. photo shoot in the Exchange District with Kelly in a Jets jersey, due to my likely irrational concern that random theatre artists might be up at that hour and realize why she was in town.

Through the pandemic, the Freep retained its arts and culture coverage, and keen to play their critical part in boosting a robust return to live performances, they launched a great new weekly newsletter — Applause — focused on the cultural sector. The entire community has benefitted for generations from the newspaper’s perseverance and pride in celebrating the cultural assets — artists, venues and events — that are so loved and supported by attendees and volunteers across the province.

Here’s to another 150 years of the Free Press!

— Camilla Holland

Executive director, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

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In a growing era of disinformation, misinformation and information overload, having a locally owned and operated media outlet like the Winnipeg Free Press, is critical in helping citizens stay informed about what is happening on their streets, in their neighbourhoods and in the city where they live. While I don’t always agree with the perspective of the journalists and contributors to the opinion pieces, I am truly grateful we have a local newspaper that can publish stories and run editorials that are unencumbered by an external ownership group whose focus is not squarely situated here.

— Harold Shuster

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Although I’m not a subscriber, I do receive your daily headlines and COVID updates here in the U.S. (in Reading, Pa., to be exact). I signed up to get your emails a couple of years ago when I worked at a company called VideoRay, which builds and sells underwater robots. One of your reporters wrote about a volunteer group in your area known as HEART that uses VideoRay equipment as part of their search and rescue efforts. I was impressed with the reporting and I’m impressed with your newspaper in general. Being a former longtime reporter (Reading Eagle) back in the day, I’ve seen how the Eagle has declined in quality and coverage over the years. Your publication, fortunately, has maintained its integrity and unwavering desire to deliver the news to Western Canadians and beyond as accurately as possible. I particularly appreciate the Canadian perspective to news gathering and reporting, especially when the focus is on U.S.-related topics. It’s an opportunity to see how we’re perceived by “outsiders” who have what I consider to be an unbiased agenda. Keep up the great work and here’s hoping you have another 150 years of delivering the news to Canadians and beyond!

— Carl Brown

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I was born in the Netherlands after the Second World War. At that time, the Canadian government launched a program that promoted the invitation to “apprentice” yourself to a farmer and then you would be rewarded with your own farm. Well, it took my Dad one day to see that working as a hired hand would not result in acquiring a farm anytime soon, so he was employed by Manitoba Hydro for 35 years.

This all leads up to the influence of the Winnipeg Free Press on our family in terms of acclimatizing us to the culture, politics, traditions and values of our new home. While my parents were fluent in English, the daily perusal of the paper contributed to familiarizing us to and understanding the nuances of Canadian society and the history that has shaped it.

The nightly discussions and debates around the supper table invigorated us and bonded us as a family.

This legacy continues as my children grew up with the same experience around our table and now, as they share the news and argue the op-ed topics around theirs, the unmeasurable value of this newspaper and the journalists who write for it, as well as the fact that it is independent from corporate and political influence, cannot be under-recognized.

Finally, my husband and I await the delivery of our daily hard copy with anticipation and I believe our nightly sharing and vigorous discourse has contributed to the achievement and excitement of successfully cohabiting for the past 55 years.

— JoAnne Hoyak

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I can remember the farm families that used to pick up the Free Press every Saturday at the local store and later the community centre. There would be a huge pile on the counter with all the various families’ names scrawled in black grease marker across the banner.

As a younger my interest was, of course, the colour funny pages but as time went on I read more and more. Having lived in all of this country’s major cities and some of the minor ones, I can attest that the Free Press was head and shoulders above the rest and I always looked forward to coming back to Manitoba where I could get my Free Press fix.

I am now in my 70s, so I have followed the paper for almost half of its lifespan. We still take it every day.

— Jim McKerchar