time in the making. I grew up in a household with com- munity-minded, active parents and grandparents. My family was always involved in our neighborhood.


My Dad


coached our sports teams. My Mom volunteered in my school and offered up our kitchen to teach cooking classes as part of a school project. She canvassed for the Cancer Society every spring. My grandparents lived on a farm and were ac- tive in the local community club and 4H programs. Life was all about fam- ily and community. Having grown up in a family that was invested in the commu- nity, I learned firsthand the importance of contributing in any way you can. Throughout school, getting involved in various ways was important to me. I re- member organizing the grade 6 grad be- fore we left for middle school, and run- ning for student council in Junior High. In grade 12, I was on the grad fundrais- ing committee. I enjoyed the process of organizing events and the positive results


Time to step up T


he decision to put my name on the ballot for the PC party of Mani- toba in Fort Garry, has been a long


A lifetime of service translates well into government.


from my efforts. When I left my home- town to attend university, I continued to be involved where I could make a differ- ence.


Over the years in my adult life, I pro-


gressed from a newly practicing occupa- tional therapist to a new wife, mother and busi- ness owner. The demands of life over time became more and more. There was always a fine line to watch when trying to balance the competing


demands of


family, business and volun- teer commitments. Volunteering has always


Nancy Cooke On the Hustings


been something important and very rewarding for me. My 10 years on the parent council of our local school led to our establish- ment of a before and after school care program in the


school that is run by the YMCA. These experiences would inspire me to engage in the next opportunity to help. As my children grew up, I began to re- alize that the opportunity to impact the community in a different way would be through direct involvement in shaping legislation and decision-making around the management of our public services. I have worked in health care in three prov-


inces as an occupational therapist. I have experienced the public education system as a student, parent and Occupational Therapist. My husband and I have man- aged the challenges and opportunities of starting and operating a small business in Manitoba. My role as the special assistant to the minister of Infrastructure, from 2016 to 2018, allowed me to gain a greater ap- preciation for the impact of legislation and legislative changes. Consulting, lis- tening and thoughtfully crafting legisla- tion that will create improved services and more opportunity in our province plays a significant role in our quality of life. I also gained a tremendous amount of respect for the civil servants who work diligently to support the government of- ficials.


I have experienced many successes


and many frustrations along the way. I have always believed that where there are problems, there are also solutions and the people who are affected by challenges are a great source of solutions. It is my time to step up and be part of


the solution. I began knocking on doors in late March and I have had the chance to meet many people. I enjoy listening to their experiences and making note of their suggestions. I have witnessed my friends and family, as well as local com- munity members give countless hours of


Nancy Cooke and her door knocking team.


volunteering to help me be successful in this campaign. It is humbling and mo- tivating to see the level of commitment they are willing to give to support me and the PC Team. While I encourage everyone to con- tribute to our community in whatever manner moves them, I look forward to my current journey and engaging with more people of the Fort Garry riding... on their doorsteps and at various com- munity events.


The hope of becoming MLA for Fort


Garry keeps me motivated and positively charged! People, Positivity and Purpose for a Better Manitoba. You can reach Nancy Cooke to comment on this article at nancycooke11@gmail.com.


u Theresa Wride could be Flin Flon’s pride Continued from page 1


everyone with respect. You’re like Dad!” You sense this quiet strength in There-


sa when you meet. Her features are kind, her manner warm but energetic, yet calm at the same time. She exudes natural con- fidence.


She is also practical, determined and


resourceful. This is attested to from the way she learned her art. “Growing up we didn’t have much,” she said, but her mother was skilled at making do, at us- ing odd bits of this and that to improve life. Odd bits included every part of the game they captured,


including scraps


of hide and the hair. Through her land- based education, Theresa was imprinted with the shapes of the world around her. Recreating those shapes came naturally to her. She could feel them and translate them into visual art. Tufting, the action of creating and sculpturing caribou hair art, was something she taught herself. She is so good at it that selling her pieces allowed her to be a stay-at-home mother, raising Benjamin, now 24, and Janelle, now 22, while she also cared for her mother-in-law at home for many years and later her own mother, Jane Mary Anderson, for a time when she was ill. “It was good for the kids to grow up so close to their grandparents,” she not- ed. Her mother-in-law has now moved to town and her own mother has returned to Norway House, but Theresa cherishes those days of companionship. Her husband, Dale, worked in min-


ing exploration. They own a small hobby farm located between Flin Flon and the airport where they raise a few farm ani- mals. “We met when we were both work- ing at a tourist lodge,” she said. A spark flared that has never been extinguished. They married and for the first five years, they spent time in the tourism indus- try working in the lodges in the sum- mer, sometimes travelling to work trade shows, then working at mineral explora- tion camps, often living in tents. After five years, it was time to start a


family, so they moved back to Flin Flon and settled on Dale’s family farm, which they own today.


They live off the grid, generating their


own power through solar panels backed up by a generator. “We learned to be very wise with our use of electricity,” Theresa said.


Over the next 20 years, Theresa would become very well educated as a career counsellor and job coach. She is well known and respected throughout the re- gion, both on her home reserve and in town. She is board member of NorVA Centre and the chair of both the Grant Committee and the Inclusion Commit- tee, among other activities. She earned her high school diploma in Thompson, where her family moved to accommodate her dad’s job. She has taken a multitude of courses and earned several certificates since then to bring her knowledge level up to a very high degree.


u Close the garage door Continued from page 1


time in our backyards, on our balconies or just down the street visiting with neighbors and introducing ourselves to new ones. No one should take that enjoyment


from you, but we must be mindful of our surroundings and the steps we can take to prevent crimes before they hap- pen.


Hindsight being 20/20, Mike and


Myrna wish they had a closed that ga- rage door, locked their front door and set their house alarm. For someone looking


August 2019


to commit a crime of opportunity, an open garage door is a like a flashing sign that screams “WE ARE OPEN”. Taking the opportunity to lock all the doors to your home including the lock on the people door is hard to remember after 25 years of not feeling the need to lock up. Times are changing and we must change with them. Both Mike and Myrna have learned a tough lesson and if you stop by their home now you will NOT find Myrna’s purse and keys to the car on the entry-


way counter. Not just for the concern of a criminal walking in unannounced and helping himself; but so that it is out of- site/out-of-mind for the occasional ser- vice person or delivery driver who may find themselves in Mike’s and Myrna’s home.


By and large we live in a safe commu-


nity and we want you to recognize there and many good neighbors doing many great things all around us. But, that is not to say we shouldn’t be mindful that crimes of opportunity happen every day


in all parts of the city. There are steps you can take to prevent crime and com- municate with each other when we see or feel something is suspicious in your neighbourhood. We hope reading these columns and taking action on what you learn become two of those steps. Working together we can make this a safer community in which to live, work and play. Patrol Sgt. Phil Penner and Constable


Garnie McIntyre are members of Crime Prevention Section, Winnipeg Police Service.


whatsupwinnipeg.ca 5


Now she is about to embark on the adventure of her life. She is running in the upcoming election to become the Progressive Conservative member of the provincial legislature. “It is time for a change,” she says, pointing out that the NDP have rep- resented Flin Flon for 50 years,


since 1969. How-


ever, the incumbent NDP member won by only 152 votes in the last election. Theresa sees Flin Flon and the region changing. This encompasses more than a shift from total de- pendence on one company – survival of the commu- nity and prosperity for the region will depend on a deepening and widening of the economy. This could in- clude tourism and the arts, two activities where Theresa has a lot of experience. She understands the impetus behind the Flin Flon Arts Council to have Flin Flon declared a Centre of Arts for the North and to begin the work needed to create a school of arts in the town.


She also understands and supports


more diversified activity in the mining sector, with more exploration, faster per- mitting and a stronger partnership with the indigenous communities. “What if we could prepare our youth to become geologists here in the north?”


she proposes. Or perhaps develop cours- es to earn a geology degree or an envi- ronmental geologist certificate? Her cre- ative energy is fed by new ideas. Her own background


Theresa Wride will be well known to many in Flin Flon. She is taking on the 50-year regime of the NDP in that riding.


has taught her how to help people get back on their feet. Her upbringing of re- sourcefulness and gaining stature through self-sup- port has imbued her with an understanding of how this can regenerate a pop- ulation. Now she wants to put that experience to work to help her region re- gain its once vibrant drive and its sense of opportu- nity and enterprise.


What’s it been like knocking on doors and talking to people? “I have had a very good response,” she says, adding that many have told her that they plan to vote for the very first time. She has that in- nate ability to inspire people she meets with a sense of her own energy and her positive outlook on life. Recently her son graduated from the Canadian Mennonite University. “Imag- ine,” he said, “back in 1960, it was ille- gal to vote. Your parents could have lost their treaty status. Now you are running to become an MLA. How cool is that?” It’s very, very cool. And it will be even cooler when she wins.


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