Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club Returns to Winnipeg

Yuk Yuk's Komedy Kabaret opened in Winnipeg in 1986 and was the 12th location at the time of the Toronto-based comedy chain founded by Mark Breslin. The Osborne Village location at 106 Osborne for years prior had been the Osborne Theatre but became well known in the 1970s for Floating Ecstasy, a waterbed store. It was a time when Osborne Village became the trendy and higher density community it is today. By the mid 1980s, the waterbed days were waning and it was converted to a sofa shop. However, the second floor became a Yuk Yuk's with the comedy boom that was sweeping the city.

In 1984 Rumors Restaurant and Comedy Club was founded when it took over for Kappy's in the recently renovated Tuxedo Village mall. Around the same time the Al Golden owned hotel began doing very local comedy and now the new owners do the same thing. Winnipeg was an embarrassment of riches for comedy.

By 1991, Yuk Yuk's had closed and a series of night clubs succeeded it. But Yuk Yuk's is back in a pretty upscale place in 2023.

In January, Yuk Yuk's will occupy the club space downstairs at Fort Garry Hotel. It follows a revived comedy boom in Winnipeg where several establishments such as Limelight, Wee Johnny's, Handsome Daughter and The Basement offer up talent.

The Fort Garry Hotel continues to find ways to enhance what it offers. The patio and renovation of the Palm Room, the spa and continued service as a locally owned place keeps it relevant. The days of cabarets and nightclubs has declined. Hotels that used to have multiple dance clubs are finding new audiences with sports bars, karaoke and comedy clubs. Live music still has a place. The Marion Hotel for example is doing an only original music night. However, there is no denying that comedy has had a resurgence.

Winnipeg took the genesis of the last comedy wave to create the long lasting Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Make no mistake, we are movers and shakers in this industry.

The End of Lowe's in Canada

Lowe's parent company in the U.S. has sold the Lowe's/Rona in Canada to a private equity firm. The Lowe's name no matter what will no longer exist in Canada in 2023. The last time there was a series of closures in 2019, Manitoba was not affected. Given the dire condition of the company and the conditions of removing the Lowe's name, it seems unlikely that the company would like to have two Ronas on Kenaston.

I personally like Rona and here in the west, it operates much like Home Depot. This was a reflection of the days when it was Revy and started off with larger stores. But that is not what Rona has been like, especially in Quebec. It was small hometown feel and all had all manner of operations that were grass roots, independent dealers and stores not so large.

Certainly Lowe's could run a big store like we saw in Winnipeg. However, their corporate structure wasn't easily replicated in Canada. And just like Target, they have retreated with heavy losses.

In the end, Lowe's was paid $400 million U.S. to walk away. Their losses look to be $2 billion U.S. New owners Sycamore Partners will probably take a while to figure out their strategy. Not all of their assets are corporate. There are a lot of independent associates in their network. 

The independent dealers number around 210 stores and it is expected some might leave for one of three other buying groups. It depends on what the new owner Sycamore Partners does. They already own Staples in Canada but how the manage independent dealers will be the real test.

As for the 70 Lowe's brand corporate stores, they will all become Ronas or another name other than Lowe's.

Competition is important to every industry. The lack of it is demonstrated in things like concert ticket sales where only was seller can't help itself from somehow selling tickets to scalpers.  Taylor Swift fans confronted by $34,000 seat sales know too well. The same is true for hardware stores. Rona and Home Depot compete on price, location, service and selection. Lose one of the players and watch all those areas become less favourable to the consumer.

Watch for Lowe's signs to disappear soon. As for the big Lowe's store along Kenaston? The future doesn't look bright.

KUB Bread Closes

After nearly 100 years KUB Bread has come to a close. The local baker is a casualty of Covid 19. Like a lot of businesses, it struggled with loss of customers and difficulty hiring employees after and a much more cutthroat grocery market. As a supplier to sporting event centers like the Canadian Life Centre and IG Field, the sports lockdowns were an instant loss of business. The restaurants and socials that used to buy bags and bags of KUB bread evaporated during closures and restrictions.

The end of restrictions on Covid have not restored business as inflation, the difficulty in finding workers and the various customers who went out of business was too hard for a family owned company to struggle through. Add to that the rising cost with lower demand, they made the only decision they could.

The location at 850 Erin had a simple note explaining the closure and social media was ahead of almost everyone in spreading the word. All the stock was bought out a day early.

The Einfeld family as co-owners of the bakery said they were open to selling the KUB name but the bakery itself founded in 1923 would not see its 100th birthday. Thirty employees are affected by the closure and the owner himself will retire. The name KUB came from one of the four original partners. His name was Kucher and thus Kucher's Ukrainian Bread was shortened to KUB.

The oldest rye bakery shop in the city closing is quite sad. It will be interesting to see if someone will leap into the business before the bread cools.

JD Sports Coming to CF Polo Park

The 10th location in Canada of JD Sports is set to open in CF Polo Park in a matter of days. It is second floor location as the mall continues to seek out exclusive stores for Manitoba. The UK company started in Manchester in 1981 and is in 32 countries around the world. It has been in Canada only a year.

At 8000 square feet, the new store is fairly big and carries most of the big sports brands. The company is focused on local partnerships and promotion compared to some other retailers who are more nationally branded.

CF Polo Park has been trying to regain some big names as competition from St. Vital and Outlet Connection at Seasons has been keenly felt these last years.

Store opening November 19.

2022 Winnipeg Civic Election Results

Another election cycle has been completed and we welcome Scott Gillingham who replaces Brian Bowman who bows out after serving two full terms. We welcome first time Councillor Evan Duncan in Charleswood and returning Councillors Russ Wyatt in Transcona and Shawn Dobson in St. James.

I'm not sure we have seen the last of Kevin Klein or Shawn Nason and a number of others who were not successful in this civic election. In fact, Klein is already the nominated candidate running provincially for the PC's in Scott Fielding's former riding of Kirkfield Park. A byelection is due there by this December.

As far as the new mayor goes, Gillingham has filled the Executive Policy Committee with loyalists but kept his word at one fewer members. He has at least 14 positions in the mayor's office to fill and unlike Bowman who had a mix of Liberals, NDP and PCs hired, the new hires come from PC or civil service ranks and have worked with him before. Stability is the key and relationships important as we see Lukes, Chambers and Browaty on EPC.

This week Gillingham has met Premier Stefanson a few times, one for a provincial announcement on a new integrated police warrants unit to go after repeat offenders. It was the type of meetings that Bowman couldn't get. But then Pallister did not meet anyone save for demanding to meet with the prime minister to ask for more transfers even when they increased every year he was in office. He wanted them all for tax and service cuts. Stefanson is now left to deal with gutted departments and a deep distrust and unpopularity.  Forging cordial and productive relationships with Mayor Gillingham could spare her government a thrashing in a year. Maybe. 

The falling voter turnout numbers and acclamations points to a citizenry disengaged and apathetic about the system working for them. However, government would do well not to be smug that it doesn't matter. It could be their own supporters who stay home. For civic elections, the experience of voting has gotten easier but incumbency means that positions only open up when someone dies or leaves of their own accord. Rarely is an incumbent unseated in Manitoba. It raises the case of term limits or ranked ballots because while experience is great, if there is no change for decades, it stagnates the system.

There was a wide variety of mayoral candidates from progressive to conservative. Many had political party links to provincial of federal parties. But being a Liberal did not guarantee Liberal supported as witnessed by endorsements of Lloyd Axworthy for Gillingham or Shannon Sampert there as well. Why the endorsement? I can guess. Axworthy was former transport minister and while there are parts of the infrastructure plan he might disagree with, he probably agreed with a tax increase that was both reasonable and targeted on fixing things. For Sampert, it could have been the various indigenous groups that felt they had a partner in Gillingham. It might also been his appearances at Pride. As a former Christian pastor, he showed the aspects of faith in people that showed personal growth and a caring heart.

Small as the turnout was, it can be surmised that the voters wanted stability, a plan and credibility. The tax freeze/2.3% rise seemed to meet skepticism when Murray and Klein talked about it. It probably was because alternative funding depending on other governments or unspecified savings was hard to swallow. Gillingham also had some proposals such as Kenaston and Peguis requiring provincial and federal contributions but the public greeted the tax proposal as more realistic than other candidates.

One thing the public seemed to have no appetite for was someone who was looking to get in bun fights, culture wars or just looked like they could not work with others. Jenny Motkaluk had as much fight in her for The Forks as she did for her fellow candidates. Don Woodstock seemed to have more fight for Jenny Motkaluk than for other leading candidates. Scott Gillingham did raise the issue of Glen Murray's past record at the debate but it was after weeks of revelations by CBC that did not seem to have anything to do with springing a surprise on the former mayor.

It is unclear when the tide turned in the election and made it possible for Gillingham to win by four thousand votes, One thing is clear is that there was not a lot of polls released publicly. And too many decisions on who could participate in debates was made based on very early polls. 

To the candidates who lost, the question has to be: Is the mayor's job the only one suitable for you? It seems to me that some candidates could be effective Councillors but never seem to run for that job. 

As for the new mayor, crime remains a priority and he needs to keep working with the province because the Stefanson government has more levers to pull when it comes to the courts, social work, prisons, Crown prosecutors and mental health. Not to mention poverty, housing and addictions. The mayor though needs a better handle on policing.

The mandate is four years but I expect we see change early. Let's just see if a healthy dose of realism comes with it.