Saturday, May 9, 2026
All the Conversations Fit to Start Your Morning

The Desk

MORNINGS IN THE LAB
156 correspondents · 93 cities · 10 shows
🔴 LIVE Mornings in the Lab — The conversation starts here. WATCH NOW →
Front PageThe Buzz

Your MLAs can't even stop name-calling. Seriously.

SHARE

What is going on in the Legislature, hey?

Winterpeg. We built a city in the coldest place anyone has any business building a city — and it is genuinely wonderful. Good morning.

The folks down at the Legislature, you know, just a stone's throw from the lovely Manitoba Legislative Building where we often see people enjoying the grounds when the weather isn't trying to freeze us solid... well, they've been busy, hey? And not always in the way you'd expect. The Speaker of the House had to put his foot down this week, banning MLAs from calling each other names. Like, seriously. It sounds like something you'd tell your kids on the playground, not a rule for elected officials who are supposed to be running our province.

### Name-Calling on Broadway

So, for months now, there’s been a lot of heckling, a lot of name-calling, and honestly, it’s just not a good look for anyone. The Speaker, Tom Lindsey, he finally said enough is enough. No more calling each other things like "racist," "transphobic," "misogynist," or "bigot" in the chamber. And you know what? Premier Wab Kinew, he stepped right up and said that the Speaker was *wrong* to ban those specific words. It makes you wonder what kind of conversations they’re even having in there, hey? It’s a bit wild, watching them argue about the rules of arguing.

* **What was banned?** Specific words like "racist," "transphobic," "misogynist," or "bigot."

* **Why was it banned?** To try and get a handle on months of heckling and name-calling.

* **Who disagrees?** Premier Wab Kinew thinks the Speaker was wrong to ban those terms.

It just feels a little... disheartening, doesn't it? We've got folks in our city dealing with real challenges, like the HIV emergency declared right here, and then you hear about our leaders arguing over whether they can call each other names. It makes you shake your head, it does. It just reminds us that while we're out here making Winnipeg the best place to live, sometimes the people in charge could use a little more of that good old prairie common sense.

You know, the crew on the morning show, they're always breaking down what's really happening. Catch them live at mornings.live, hey.

SHARE

More from Rosie Fontaine

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →