Well, folks, here it is! Another year, another volume of The Uniter comes to an end. It’s always bittersweet when we wrap up a publishing year. But it’s also fun, because our final weekly issue of the year is one of our biggest: the Urban Issue!

Every year, we choose a theme for our Urban Issue through which we will examine the topics, people and forces that confront Winnipeg and Winnipeggers. This year, our theme is “The Age of Uncertainty.”

Over the last two pandemic years, many of us have grown tired of the cliche “in these unprecedented times ...” But with the lifting of COVID restrictions despite rising case numbers, an unstable global economy and Russia’s invasion and possible genocide in Ukraine threatening a generations-long international order, it’s safe to say that this time is pretty un-frickin’-precedented.

We at The Uniter were curious to look at this at the local level. How are local people and organizations dealing with the fact that we won’t be going back to some pre-COVID version of “normal?” From the cautious return to in-person festivals to confronting a collective mental-health crisis, from the changing arts landscape to governments’ attempts (or lack thereof) to control the pandemic, from transitioning during COVID to the meaning behind our lockdown streaming series obsessions, we’ve got some perspectives.

Thank you for being there for us and reading our work during a long year that’s been difficult for so many in this city and around the world.

Published in Volume 76, Number 24 of The Uniter (April 7, 2022)