Doreen Borgfjord McFarlane, Niagara Falls, ON

I am writing to express my serious concern about the future of Icelandic Studies and the Icelandic Collection at the University of Manitoba. 

By way of introduction, I was born in Winnipeg and have lived and worked internationally, including many years in the United States and four years teaching in China. I hold a PhD in Jewish and Christian Studies from Chicago Theological Seminary, have authored eleven books with two more in production, and currently serve Lutheran and Anglican congregations in the Niagara Region. I have also been a donor to the University of Manitoba, most recently contributing a collection documenting the life and career of baritone Robert Irwin, who taught voice at the University for more than a decade.

Sharron Arksey, Winnipeg, MB

Manitoba’s Provincial Trunk Highway 50 begins where it meets the Yellowhead Highway (Provincial Trunk Highway Number16) in the south-central portion of the province. The paved highway stretches north for approximately 50 miles before it makes a turn to the west, ending at McCreary, MB. Its north-south route parallels the western shore of Lake Manitoba. The highway is on a gravel ridge left by the receding of glacial Lake Agassiz thousands of years ago.

It is a land of marshes and cattle and many birds. Langruth has named itself the Birdwatching Capital of Manitoba and large swathes of the area along the west side of Lake Manitoba are included within the boundaries of Canadian Important Bird Areas.

About six miles north on the highway, I pass an intersection with Provincial Road 567. If I followed that road, and then made a turn south, I would arrive at the farm site where I grew up. This is familiar territory.

Another five miles up the highway and I come to the Lakeland Cemetery. It is the cemetery where my parents and grandparents are buried, as well as a brother and numerous aunts and uncles.

James Hargrove, Winnipeg, MB

What wars beget is not so much mystery as muddle. Such was the case of Kjartan Sigurdson, who had been raised on a farm near Lundar, Manitoba. At age 28, he joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles volunteer infantry battalion and was sent to England in 1943. Canadians knew that Allied forces were fighting their way from Africa into Sicily, and they wondered why Canadian forces were kept in reserve. That changed on June 6, 1944, with Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France.