Summer is here, calendar be damned
Avariety of events let us know that summer is arrived. Sunday is Fathers’ Day and the local calendar includes an array of events at Echo Dale.
Redcliff Days fired up Friday and concludes on Sunday. Jazzfest begins the same day.
Saturday marks two weeks to Canada Day, and Wednesday is the first official day of summer.
Beyond that, the Alberta Summer Special Olympics arrive in Medicine Hat July 7-9.
Also, baseball season has begun as Athletic Park ... the Mavericks beat up the Okotoks Dawgs 18-7 on Thursday
The Mavs host Yorkton for two games this weekend.
Further proof the calendar has gotten away from us: following Monday’s city council meeting, fewer than a handful of meetings remain until October’s election.
It bears explanation
In case you’ve been too embarrassed to ask... there’s a big difference between air ambulances when one is a helicopter and another is a plane, and beyond the obvious.
The issue is back at the fore thanks to the dogged reporting of
News reporter Gillian Slade, who is detailing the bidding process for a new fixed-wing (i.e. plane) service in the province.
Reporters have long struggled to find the quickest explanation for the difference between the two, and the News has generally landed on describing locallybased HALO as a medical rescue helicopter, rather than an air ambulance.
That term we reserve for the planes that mostly handle the intercity transport of patients.
To keep it straight, for example, HALO would bring a car crash victim to Medicine Hat, but fixed-wing (a plane) takes them on to Calgary if needed.
As for the helicopter-specific discussion, there’s also some diplomacy required.
The MedicAir Society of Southeastern Alberta (HALO) has often run into trouble differentiating itself from STARS air ambulance, which is based elsewhere and has the benefit of a government contract.
For years it has politely attempted to let locals know that donations to the other’s lottery fundraisers don’t support the HALO service.
Get plowing!
The Alberta Wheat Commission is looking for growers who are outstanding in their field, so to speak.
The producer group is holding a contest to find the best yield in Alberta this season on both irrigated and dryland acres, with the winner earning bragging rights and tickets to FarmTech conference next winter.
Simply mark off at least a 10acre plot, then list and track how it’s managed. The best tonnage at harvest wins.
Participants must work at least 500 acres in total, have planted a registered species and have applied via the group’s website before July 1.
A local winner will also get their picture in the News, we promise.
Quick thought
Attention grammarians: A local agency features two “coexecutive directors” but shouldn’t that rather be “executive co-directors”?
A look ahead
Council’s Monday agenda is topped by a presentation on land department’s 2016 financial year and future plans.
100 years ago
The Alberta Liberals were returned to power in majority strength, reported the News on June 14, 1917, though no votes were cast locally.
“Siftonism Triumphant” was the title of an editorial, referring to Premier Arthur Sifton (Note: Remember this name).
“The practice of concentrating every effort on defeating strong, brainy men of a party seems to have become an obsession... (and has) its origin in the moral turpitude of the cheap politician.”
Local MLAs Charles Pingle (Redcliff ) and Nelson Spencer (Medicine Hat) were acclaimed as serving military members.
The election also resulted in Louise McKinney, of Claresholm, becoming the first female MLA in the Commonwealth. Armed forces balloting that would continue through July, would eventually elect Lt. Roberta MacAdams.
In Ottawa, the Conscription debate heated up with a proposed coalition being floated.
In the near region, Irvine was alive with rumours that a keg of full-strength had been mixed in a shipment of near-beer and the date of the first Manyberries Stampede would be July 4.