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Vol. 21, No. 19, Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Bruderheim’s Maschmeyer gets shutout for Canada in Olympic opener BY JOHN MATHER The Canadian Women’s National Hockey team had their Olympic opening game postponed last week when their opponent, the Finnish National team, had several players came down. with the norovirus. But Canada did take to the ice on Feb 7 with Bruderheim’s Emerance Maschmeyer in net for the Canadians. Maschmeyer earned a shutout as the Canadians skated to a 4-0 win over Switzerland. After a very even but scoreless first period, Canada’s Natalie Spooner scored in the second to give Canada an
early lead. Canada ultimately scored three powerplay goals during the game. Sarah Filler and Daryl Watts each added a goal and an assist during the game and Julia Gosling rounded out the scoring. Maschmeyer faced only six Canadian Olympian Emerance Maschmeyer
shots in the game while Canada fired 55 shots at the Swiss goalie. Maschmeyer became the fourth Canadian goalie to record two Olympic shutouts playing in her third star. On Feb. 9, Canada played C z e c h i a .
Maschmeyer sat this game out as Canada went with Ann-Renee Desbiens in goal. After scoring four in the first period from Julie Gosling, Kristin O’Neil, Sarah Fillier, and Laura Stacey, Canada raced out of the gate in the second frame to score a quick fifth goal. Natalie Mlynkova scored the lone Czechia goal. Desbiens faced 18 shots in the game. Canada was shutout 5-0 against the United States on Tuesday with Emerance replacing pulled goalie Renée Desbiens in the third period after goal number five.
Referendum petition signings continue in Chipman BY JANA SEMENIUK For four hours on Feb. 5, a steady trickle of people filed into the Chipman Hotel, one after another, adding their names to the growing list of those who want to see a referendum on independence in Alberta. One canvasser has organized several signings in the area, beginning with Bruderheim on Jan. 29, the Chipman signing, Two Hills which is scheduled for Feb. 14, in addition to a regular signing location in Lamont starting on Feb. 14 and every Sat. until April. 25 at the bottle depot. While most Chipman signers declined to make a statement on record, one woman, on condition of anonymity, gave her reason for signing. “There’s been so much going on, I think separation would be good for Alberta,” she said. It was nearly one year ago that petition organizer Mitch Sylvestre, founder
of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), held a speaking event in Lamont on Alberta creating its own pension plan. It was attended by 60 people. Just
two months later, Sylvestre held another speaking event in Mundare, this time focused on total Alberta independence after the results of the last
A canvasser is seated in a private room at the Chipman Hotel on Feb. 5, gathering petition signatures for a possible referendum on Alberta independence. Photo: Jana Semeniuk
federal election in April. This time, it was attended by 150 people. “Six weeks ago (before the election) I was an independent Alberta in Canada guy,” said APP CEO Mitch Sylvestre at the time. “Now I see that there’s no path out. We need to become an independent nation, then if Canada wants to renegotiate with us, it can be from a position of strength, and we’ll be able to make changes.” Sylvestre applied in Dec. to Elections Alberta under the citizen initiative petition act. According to Sylvestre’s application on the EA website, his intended petition is for a constitutional referendum proposal with the question “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?” Sylvestre will need to gather 177,732 signatures by the end of the collection period on May 2.