Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

Climbing up trees, wrangling with ropes and navigating twisted odd-angled limbs may not be everyone's idea of a great day. 

But it is to Jordyn Dyck, who has turned her job as an arborist into a passion leading to international tree-climbing competitions.

Tributes poured in Friday for Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who died after collapsing outside the Winnipeg Law Courts building. 

Merrick, the first woman elected to the role, was talking to reporters about two court cases when she said she felt dizzy and fell to the ground. 

Fire and paramedic crews arrived, performed chest compressions and carried Merrick away on a stretcher to an ambulance, which sped off with its siren on.

The appointment of longtime broadcaster Charles Adler to the Senate is being criticized in some quarters, including by a member of the federal cabinet.

Adler, who spent decades hosting talk-radio shows, was named to the Senate on the weekend by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and will represent Manitoba. 

Dan Vandal, the minister of northern affairs, has issued a brief one-sentence statement that says there are many Manitobans better suited to represent the province.

Nine months after being elected, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew continues to enjoy a honeymoon with voters. 

His NDP government has enacted many promises the party made during last year's election campaign, and opposition parties are working to rebuild after losing leaders and legislature seats.

But challenges lie ahead, experts say, as the government tries to enact other pledges — such as keeping grocery prices affordable — and follow through on a fiscal plan that could require tight restraint.

The Manitoba government has given environmental approval to a planned search of a landfill for the remains of two slain First Nations women.

For some family members who have been fighting for a search for more than 18 months, the news was a welcome relief.

"They're going to be starting right away, hopefully by the end of summer or something, and they can work right through winter. So it's good," Donna Bartlett, the grandmother of Marcedes Myran, said after meeting with Premier Wab Kinew on Tuesday.

Wab Kinew was sworn-in as Manitoba premier and named his lineup of cabinet ministers Wednesday in a colourful ceremony filled with the music and customs of the many Indigenous communities in the province.

There was Métis jigging accompanied by a fiddle, Dakota singing and drumming and the lighting of an Inuit qulliq -- an oil lamp -- during the two-hour event that marked the inauguration of the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province.

Manitobans are to make history today as they cast final ballots in an election that has followed four weeks of promises, debates and controversial advertisements.

If Heather Stefanson leads the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to a third consecutive majority, she would become the first woman to be elected premier in a Manitoba general election. Stefanson took over the top spot midterm in a party leadership race after former premier Brian Pallister retired in 2021.

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives came under fire Monday for taking out a newspaper ad that highlights, in part, the province's decision to not search a landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women.

The full-page ad, on Saturday in the Winnipeg Free Press, touts the governing Tories' promises on a few issues including tax cuts and violent crime. On the decision to not search the Prairie Green Landfill, the words "Stand Firm" appear in large text. In smaller font is the phrase: "For health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no."

Police and municipal crews removed a blockade Tuesday at a Winnipeg landfill where protesters had barricaded a road for almost two weeks to demand a search for the remains of Indigenous women.

Workers with front-end loaders and other machinery removed wood planks and other material that had blocked the road to the Brady Road landfill. There were no arrests and the removal went smoothly.

"I interacted with the leader of the group and we gained an understanding of what was going to happen today," Insp. Gord Spado of the Winnipeg Police Service said.

A Manitoba judge urged the two sides in a landfill blockade to try to reach a compromise Thursday, as the federal and Manitoba governments sparred over a proposed search for the remains of Indigenous women.

The city of Winnipeg is asking for a court injunction to remove a blockade that was set up at the city−run Brady Road landfill last week, after Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search of the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, which is north of the city.