City, province face off to celebrate Winnipeg’s sesquicentennial

City and provincial elected officials and employees donned skates and jerseys for a friendly hockey match to celebrate Winnipeg’s 150th anniversary.

Mayor Scott Gillingham, members of city council and staff trounced Premier Wab Kinew, other MLAs and provincial employees 6-0 during the game, held Saturday at Gateway Recreation Centre.

“I could tell on the ice everyone was having a good time,” Gillingham said. “The pace of the game was a little faster than I thought it would be, but there (were) a lot of good players on both teams. The key was fun. We had fun.”

Kinew echoed Gillingham’s assessment. “It was a lot of fun to play some fast-paced hockey,” he said.

Gillingham’s team took control of the puck immediately, with Jennifer Pearson putting the first point on the board when she scored about halfway through the first period.

Kelli Rowswell, Syndey Stotski and Amanda Klassen contributed a goal each, with Jenelle Kohanchuk scoring two.

Gillingham had one assist.

“It wasn’t a pretty assist,” he said. “Basically I just kind of pushed the puck to one of the women on our team… So if that counts as an assist, I’ll take it.”

Kinew got on the score sheet for a different reason.

“It was a tripping penalty, but still, I’ll be in the provincial archive as on the score sheet,” he said, chuckling.

It was standing room only at the arena, which seats 250 people. Free Press columnist Dan Lett officiated the 36-minute game and LTI, co-host on 103.1 Virgin Radio’s The Ace Burpee Show, handled the play-by-play.

Attendees received complimentary hotdogs and drinks, courtesy of the city, and were encouraged to bring non-perishable food donations for Harvest Manitoba.

The event rekindled a half-century old “hockey rivalry” that started during the city’s centennial, when Mayor Stephen Juba’s City Fathers played Premier Edward Schreyer’s Golden Boys.

About 4,000 people showed up at the Winnipeg Arena to watch the game on March 2, 1974. The City Fathers thumped the Golden Boys 4-1 and took home the Centennial Legislators’ Cup, a trophy made especially for the event.

The teams squared off in a rematch eight months later. The city asserted its dominance once again, winning the game 7-1.

While Gillingham and his teammates went home with the Centennial Legislators’ Cup, the mayor said that off the ice, he and Kinew have a shared goal of making Winnipeg a better place for all residents.

“We’re trying to work well together,” he said. “I think we have a good relationship. We won’t always agree on everything and that’s fine. The key is we’re working together to try to make improvements for our city.”

Kinew added that the fact players left the ice smiling is indicative of the good political relationship the province has with the city.

“The fact that we can go for a skate together and have some laughs, and put a fast-paced game together where we’re still all friends at the end of it, I think it’s just a good sign,” he said.

One area where the mayor and premier certainly differ is their pre-game rituals.

Gillingham said he took an Advil and drank three glasses of water to prepare, while Kinew said he ate three pieces of his wife’s vinarterta.

Ultimately, the game was the entertaining community event organizers planned it to be.

“That’s the great thing about hockey — it brings Manitobans together,” Kinew said.

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Aaron Epp
Reporter

Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. He was previously the associate editor at Canadian Mennonite. Read more about Aaron.