News
Copy by Lawrence Zwer
As was widely expected, Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Governor General Mary Simon yesterday afternoon to ask her to dissolve parliament and call a federal election. Accordingly, all 4 parties kicked off their election campaigns yesterday in advance of an April 28th vote. Carney, who is the first PM not to have held elected office, announced that he would run in the Ottawa riding of Nepean.
Closer to home, in the Bay of Quinte riding, we know that incumbent MP Ryan Williams will run again, while the rest of the major parties have yet to declare candidates. In Hastings-Lennox and Addington-Tyendinaga the Liberals will field Tracey Sweeny Schenk against Conservative incumbent Shelby Kramp-Neuman.
Surely not related to the federal election, the federal government announced a round of funding for community building renovations across Canada, and locally the Wooler Schoolhouse project is going to receive $1,000,000 from the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program. Originally built as a log cabin, the building located at 62 County Road 5 was renovated and expanded over the years, growing into a small red schoolhouse in 1870 and then expanding again into a three-storey prairie-style building in 1928. The building closed as a schoolhouse in 1966, however, it continued to be used by the community as an event space operated by the Provincial Council for Boy Scouts of Canada up until 2021.
In other news, a weak and frail Pope Francis left the hospital yesterday after surviving a five-week, life-threatening bout of pneumonia, giving a thumbs up to an adoring crowd and taking a detour to go pray at a Rome-area church before returning home to the Vatican. A motorcade carrying the 88-year-old Pope wound its way through light Rome traffic on Sunday morning and kept going after reaching Vatican City, where crowds of people had lined the streets to welcome him home. Francis later arrived across town at St. Mary Major Basilica, where he often goes to pray. Before leaving Gemelli hospital, Francis gave a thumbs up and acknowledged the crowd after he was wheeled out onto the balcony overlooking the main entrance. Doctors said Francis should refrain from meeting with big groups of people or exerting himself but that eventually he should be able to resume all of his normal activities.
Relations between Greenland and the United States sank further yesterday as the Greenlandic prime minister erupted over what he called a “highly aggressive” delegation of senior officials the Trump administration said it would send to the island this week. Usha Vance, the second lady, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, are among the officials headed to the island, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, though President Trump has vowed to make it part of the United States “one way or the other.” Greenlanders have become increasingly wary of Mr. Trump’s intentions. A recent poll found that a vast majority of people on the island, which lies along the Arctic Ocean and is mostly covered in ice, do not want to become part of the United States.
Finally, if you see an officer Gretzky around town who looks kind of familiar, rest assured that your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The newest member of the Prince Edward OPP is officer Brent Gretzky – former Belleville Bull, former member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and of course, current brother of The Great One, Wayne Gretzky. The 53 year-old Brent is a longtime Belleville resident with strong ties to our region.
Sports
Rachel Homan captured a second straight world women’s curling championship yesterday with a 7-3 victory over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni at the tournament in South Korea. Homan also defeated Tirinzoni in last year’s final at Sydney, Nova Scotia. Homan and her Ottawa rink of Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes became the first Canadian team to repeat as women’s world champions since Sandra Schmirler’s squad did it in 1993 and 1994.
In other action on the ice, the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres travelled to Montreal yesterday afternoon to face the Montreal Victoire. After a quiet first period Toronto’s Jesse Compher opened the scoring at 52 seconds of the second. Her team mate Natalie Spooner followed up later in the period while Montreal great Marie-Philip Poulin responded in the third. The win sees Toronto just three points behind Montreal for the lead of the league.
The Formula One circus travelled to Shanghai this weekend for the second race of the season, the Chinese Grand Prix. The McLaren was once again the class of the field, this time with Oscar Piastri taking the top spot on the podium, ahead of team mate Lando Norris. Mercedes’ George Russell took third. Ferrari’s drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were both disqualified post-race for technical infringements.
Back to hockey, just one Canadian team in NHL action yesterday – the Jets fell 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres.
