So that CN Centre announcement teased yesterday is cooler than expected:

Here’s their website.

Here’s a video:

A few years ago there was a giant waterslide set up going down University Way and that was awesome and this looks awesome. See you there.

I also got my hands on this guy, finally:

Honestly, they did a better job capturing the city than you would expect from a chain:

They also have a variation on the one I received, featuring the CN Centre:

I think I might have gotten the last one of my version, though — second edition, as well, since they were sold out the first time I tried. People want novelty McDonald’s mugs!

Fact-checking images that claim to be from Prince George

Two items came across my feed this week that I doubted the veracity of, so here’s my attempt to fact-check them.

The first was this TikTok video:

This struck me as one of those things that was pretty obviously just choosing a city people have a low opinion of and putting some sort of silly joke about it. Clues included the amount of green grass supposedly at West Lake and the fact it also didn’t look like West Lake, at all.

Sure enough, I found the original post referenced in the video in WTF Prince George, then did a reverse-Google search of it and there it was — older memes in other Facebook pages using the same image.

VERDICT: NOT PRINCE GEORGE.

The second one I was even more confident about but after checking …. I’m not so sure.

The reason I was so confident is that there are several places that list all the royal tours that have occurred in both Canada and B.C., and after the Queen died, one of my jobs was to check to see where she’d been in the province. She visited to open UNBC in 1994 but beyond that, Prince George was not on any royal tour list.

However, the date attributed to this photo was 1971 and it is true that she toured B.C. that year. The official itinerary reads, “several B.C. cities including Greater Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Tofino (Princess Anne only), Comox, Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, Prince Rupert and Williams Lake.” I thought maybe this was just pulling a classic mixing up Prince George and Prince Rupert but when I did the reverse-Google image search with this I got one hit, from the Toronto Star archives. I had to use the cache since the page is down, and the caption from May 10, 1971, does indeed read

So it IS well possible that Prince George was one of those “several B.C. cities” but it’s odd there’s nothing in the local newspaper archives about this. Something for a historian to dig into, if any of you are out there!

VERDICT: POSSIBLY PRINCE GEORGE

Not sure what’s going on here, but good for him

Quick news

• Nominations for the Prince George School District by-election close Friday. Here’s who’s in it so far.

• A record heat wave is on its way to the city this weekend, with temperatures up to 17 C above normal. Here’s UNBC’s Joseph Shea on the underlying causes and why it’s not the same as last year’s heat dome, but still concerning.

• Big real estate news: the Victoria Medical Building is for sale. $12 million!

• I find it kind of funny that the government will start to let people apply for passports online just as Prince George is finally getting its own passport office.

• Two buildings along Queensway and one on 3rd Ave. will be converted to supportive housing.

• Input on a proposed apartment on Queensway has been extended into June.

• A forestry professional spoke to the Citizen saying he thinks Prince George is “sitting on a time bomb” and could be the next Fort McMurray when it comes to wildfires. I’d like to see a little more sourcing on this one, though — clearing and mitigation work is regularly done, and I’ve spoken to other people in this sphere who are pretty confident about the work that is regularly done to make sure there are fire breaks on the outskirts of the city. It also feels like one of those half stories, because the guy makes claims but there’s no check in with anyone else who might know whether what he’s saying is true or to corroborate it. So… there ya go.

• Either way, an open burning ban comes into effect today.

• “The mother of a man on trial for opening fire on the Vanderhoof RCMP detachment 1 1/2 years ago gave an account Tuesday of the trouble they had managing his mental health issues over the months and days leading up to the incident.” We’re pretty lucky to have a semi-dedicated court reporter in the city — consider financially supporting the outlet that provides this!

• If you’ve had stuff stolen, check here to see if RCMP have it.

• Fire at Trinity United Church.

• Chantelle and Warren Grafton to headline ninth annual Timberwolves Legacy Night.

• An impressive UNBC valedictorian.

• ‘Lift The Mask’ mental health campaign spearheaded by Prince George Spruce King deemed success after raising over $6,200.

• The Moose Hide Campaign walk is today.

• Art Battle is this weekend.

• The rodeo is returning to the BCNE this August.

• Chieftan Auto Parts celebrates 50 years. “For all your stops and starts, think Chieftan Auto Parts!” That’s how the song goes, right? Anyone have it on YouTube? We’ll want it someday!

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Send feedback by replying to this email. Find me online at akurjata.ca.