If this were all that was required to drive a taxi, it would mean that people who want to work for a few hours to earn a little extra income could do so quite easily by driving in the peak hours, after work and on the weekends. I simply don't understand why companies with vested interests that are diametrically opposed to the needs and indeed safety of the consumer should be allowed to argue that there should be no extra taxicabs driving around Winnipeg. Of course they want to keep supply low -- but what other businesses get to do this? If I want to open another fast-food restaurant, McDonald's can't petition the city and argue that I shouldn't be able to do so. Why should the taxicabs? I say -- get rid of the barriers of entrance to taxicab driving and let the market decide. Perhaps it would be different if we had a superb subway system or rapid transit, but until those occur, more taxicabs are what this city desperately needs.

As anyone who deals with teenagers knows, their attention span can be fleeting, especially in situations where the "cool" thing to do would be to act up. So, when Joshua Peters began his solo on the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, and one could hear a pin drop in the Transcona Collegiate gym, we knew that something special was happening. The WSO's energetic and delicate accompaniment was excellent, serving to move the young violinist (16 years old) without obscuring his virtuoso playing in the usually poor acoustics of the school gym. The TCI students' silence during the music and raucous applause after the music was a ringing endorsement of the WSO.

The scourge of abandoned shopping carts isn't limited to the store's own parking lot, but extends to our lanes and streets where they're happily abandoned by store customers who've misappropriated them. While Speedy Cart rounds them up as best they can (frequently from complaints), errant carts continue to damage vehicles, obstruct streets and lanes and often end up in rivers and creeks.