Original subtitles

I punched myself in the face hard.

Twice.

He did a solo of Stairway to heaven with

a glue gun and leather.

Nellie Mclung, she fought to insure a

better standing of women in society,

that's amazing like, for a girl.

When you grow up in a small town in

Newfoundland, you see the people have a sense of

humour about hard times -- Check Check

I turned that into a career and hit the road.

Mr. Jonny Harris!

Now I'm on a mission to find the funny

in the places you'd least expect it,

Canada's struggling small towns.

Towns that are against the ropes but hanging in

there, still laughing in the face of adversity.

Welcome to Manitou, Manitoba!

Here we are in Manitou, Manitoba.

Just west of Morden and Winkler.

When I first heard that I was like Morden and Winkler,

aren't those the two old guys on the

muppets sitting up in the balcony?

And just like the muppets, Manitou sadly is on

these days which is too bad.

Back in the day, this place was really moving.

I mean, it was really going places. Literally.

Of course the start of things right here in

Manitou didn't start right here in Manitou did they?

It was up the road a little bit right?

Originally called Manitoba City it was to be an

important stop on the new cross Canada railway.

We all know that the railway came and took a

sharp turn left and missed Manitoba City by a country mile.

So you guys uprooted, the business, houses,

put them all on skids and towed them by horse.

And I've heard incredibly stories of families still

inside the houses, kids kids,

make sure the paintings don't fall off the wall.

And remember don't use the toilet.

And it worked. Manitou went to the railroad and built

a beautiful little town.

But 100 years later, their future is more elusive

then the railway ever was.

There's been a concern about will Manitou become

a ghost town?

You know over a hundred years of history,

is that gone, is it out the door?

Richard Klassen took me for a tour,

a walking tour around the town.

With the businesses that have been shutting down,

change is inevitable.

One of the difficulties living in Manitou is

that we are close to Morden and Winkler.

They've got the bigger box stores.

That can suck the life out of a small town. -Yes.

Richard told me that the railway was

going to close the line.

So a number of farmers got together, they created a

cooperative which they bought the line

from the railway company.

Is it profitable?

We're not dead yet you know they're going to keep

it going, they want to keep it going and

it's just not for themselves it's also for the future.

Of course anybody's who has played monopoly

as a child knows you buy the railways,

you buy the railways.

You guys got that one now, if you buy three

more you'll be building hotels in Saskatchewan.

I visited Bette Mueller at the Log Cabin.

The log cabin of course was not built there

it was moved there like everything else in this town,

you guys love moving your stuff.

It's weird when you check into the hotel right

it's well what's my view, well today...

you're overlooking the pool.

So Bette what's holding the town of Manitou together now?

Well that's a good question I think that

people are here because they love the place and

they're willing to put the work in some of

the people here volunteer.

My method has always been to whine

from the sidelines.

I asked I said is there like a little something

I could read up on the town, maybe a pamphlet

or something you know?

We have this wonderful history book that we

developed several years ago.

Careful what you wish for folks,

careful what you wish for.

It's the history of Manitou and the area of

Manitou and you'll find almost everything you ever

wanted to know in there.

It's enormous.

900 pages, 900 pages!

I've seen western Europe covered in less than that.

They're trying to put the thing online but

the ran out of internet.

The name of course is in rhythm with our roots was

a weird choice for you guys considering...

I was doing some reading I found a story that at

first I found hard to believe, I found out that

the two mild mannered gentlemen who run the

hardware store are hall of famers.

Sport super stars.

Walt for baseball, Lew for hockey.

I did play against Gordie Howe once.

Did you really?

Yeah.

Mr. Hockey and was he any good?

Ah yeah pretty good.

Lew was offered to go try out for the Red Wings.

How come you didn't go try out?

Well a lot of the fellas did go but I think they

were a lot of them didn't have something

like this to keep them home.

It's either the coolest or craziest thing I've ever heard.

I said to Lew I said listen could you imagine

if you went down to Detroit way back then and

bought a house for $5,000 dollars today it could be

worth almost $500 dollars.

Lew felt a sense of civic duty and he looked into

the future and said if I go to Detroit

what's Manitou going to do without me?

There isn't a day goes by we don't cut keys or put

batteries in people's watches for them.

We have cut a lot of keys in all those years.

But they did a lot more than just cut keys.

Walt was the mayor for a long time, was on council

for like 37 years.

Lew was on the hospital board, the school board,

the cemetery committee, basically if you were born

here or raised here or paid taxes here or died

here these guys helped you out and they

changed your watch battery.

With the brothers retiring and no one to take over

this hardware hall of fame is closing.

Putting a crucial question in everyones mind.

Who's going to cut the keys?

I can't believe it because I thought in Manitou

whenever somebody moved they brought their house

with them, why would they need...?

In a place where buildings move, you'll find Manitou's roots

in the most unlikely house of them all.

It's the very centre of the community.

Manitou's beautiful opera house.

This place has geothermal heating, the opera house

in Sydney, Australia doesn't have geothermal heating.

That old [beep] hole right.

We've done Diary of Anne Frank, Shrek the Musical,

Guys and Dolls, Footloose.

We've got kids that fall asleep while there's

parents are up on stage right, some of them have

gone away, they've come back to Manitou and

they've got involved with the show, of course they

bring back the talent.

Richard showed me this struggling town still has

the getup and go that got up and moved so many years

ago and that gave me an idea.

I think Richard you should do a play about the

moving of Manitoba City and how it became.

That's in the works.

Me and Richard we started spitballing some ideas.

Moving production sort of like wind its way down

the road and you could sing and dance.

It's going to be an epic, it's going to be an epic,

it's going to be called...

Manitousical the moving musical.

Manitousical the moving musical.

Not bad right?

900 pages!

900 pages!

I've seen western Europe covered in less than that.

I guess it all depends on how many details you want

to keep in the thing, like Europe 1914 Archduke Franz

Ferdinand assassinated, prelude to war.

Manitou 1914, Bert Smith collects eggs from

hen house, prelude to breakfast.

As I discovered more and more the town was full

of talent, I realized I had to go talk to next.

He's an eleven time international

yodeling championship.

He's somewhere around 300 songs,

the living legend The Yodeling Cowboy, Stew Clayton.

[yodeling]

Nice one, Stew!

I did one really good yodel in my life.

You did?

But it was when I got hit with a really cold hockey

ball in the crotch.

Well you'd certainly hit the high note.

Stew is another character who could have

taken his talents elsewhere.

He was offered a tour and he had young family here

in Manitou and he chose to stay and also part of the

reason was he had heard a lot of stories about

you know he was weary of road life.

Of course we all know Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley.

So I thought it over for a long time,

I think maybe it was two seconds, possibly three.

I said no cause there was always smoking

and drinking, drugs.

Having meaningless trysts with women half

your age in hotel rooms.

Must be awful.

You don't sound too serious.

The farm and family were what Stew wanted

so that's what Stew did.

He also became one of Manitou's biggest volunteers.

We were there, we were playing some

guitar and yodeling, he took out a saw.

I thought this is taking a weird turn.

Despite staying, he still managed to become

a champion yodeler and saw player.

He played Amazing Grace for me on the saw and then

he did the solo from Stairway to Heaven with

a glue gun and a level.

Very impressive, very impressive.

Best version of Amazing Grace I ever saw.

It's not just homegrown talent but stay home

talent that keeps this place on the move.

Anyway I went back over to visit Richard again at the

Opera House again trying to weasel my way into the show.

While Manitou is losing young people to other

opportunities, the summer play actually draws them back.

Why are you saying this?

I only wish to speak to her.

Jealous.

I've been in 26 different productions here

in the Manitou area.

While I was waiting for my audition I got to

talk to some of the kids involved here.

I got to talk to Skye Thorleifson.

He wants to become a filmmaker, director,

big Ingmar Bergman fan.

I play Yasir who is an Egyptian aristocrat.

He says he finds he gets recognized around town

now which is always nice.

I said to him I know buddy exactly what that's like

I said listen back in Toronto at my grocery

store I get recognized, now I think it's because

the cashier has a picture of me saying don't

accept personal cheques from this man.

I finally got my audition.

Mr.Klassen I'm doing a piece from

In Rhythm With Our Roots.

That sounds great.

I can handle that.

We are indebted to Mr. Lee for some very fine

watercress which he brought to our

office on Friday last.

It was taken from a spring on Mr. Lee's farm in the valley.

He can always secure as much of the dainty

relish as there once required.

Ah... ah...

and that's scene.

Thank you.

Give us a chance to talk things over.

That's it, I'm staying and 8 am tomorrow morning in

this building we're having an open casting call

for Manitousical the moving musical.

They're so many hall of famers in this town,

there must be a trick involved they must have like a

restaurant called the hall of fame or something like

anyone can go and be like yeah I'm in the hall of fame,

eating poutine.

I went to visit the archery club.

I got to talk to Clayton Sprung.

The guy's 13 years old and he's the provincial champion.

Though he's won provincials a bunch of times,

a family vacation kept him from the

national's last year.

Are you going to go to the national's this year?

No actually we have cattle show this weekend.

I was like what you are going to miss the

national's for that, are you mad about it?

No I like cattle.

I'd be kicking and screaming.

But he's so cool and confident the national's

will always be there next year.

I have to show my heffer.

I'd make some more jokes about him but I'm pretty

sure he could hit a moving target so...

Will you show me how to shoot a bow and arrow?

Yeah sure. -Alright let's do it.

Will you carry that.

-- Yeah sure.

Back is shot.

Clayton has the Manitou motto down pat, stay home

and pitch in but keep your eye on the prize.

So you guys, what's all you guys favourite

target to shoot at?

Yellow

Yeah you want to get it right in the yellow.

Some of the 3D targets we were shooting

at were really cool.

Is it alligator or crocodile, I forget which

one is indigenous to the prairies.

When I tried my hand at shooting the bow and arrow,

right at the hardest part,

it's all shaking like that...

I punched myself in the face.

I punched myself in the face hard... twice.

Oh I did it again!

And then I was all cranky I had a sore lip.

Don't laugh I really hurt myself.

You got to pull it all the way back.

But after a few lessons from the pros.

Hey Sam, thanks buddy.

I decided to downsize.

Town of champions here.

No pressure.

Perfect. That's exactly where the heart is in...

whatever that was.

You moved and changed your name which officially

makes Manitou the first municipality to

enter the witness relocation program.

In fact I'm told Manitou is the first nation word

for I don't know what you're talking about,

I don't know.

That got me thinking about all these

hidden heroes in one town.

And then Wilma Walcraft showed me the humble homestead of

the biggest hero and yes the building was moved here

from somewhere else.

We're in the log house and Nellie lived in this house.

She became known because of her interest in

women's rights, her interest in temperance.

I guess she's Manitou's claim to fame then.

Definitely.

Nellie McClung is one of your town's first champions.

Manitoba women got the right to vote first of

all partly thanks to her.

I can't imagine the adversity that she would

have faced, the gender discrimination.

One of the greatest feminist in the world,

she managed to write 16 books.

She went to the Canadian Supreme Court to insure

that legally women were also defined by the word persons.

They rejected her, she went to the

Supreme Court in England.

They said that she could just hold you

in the palm of her hands.

She went to the Supreme Court in England and she won.

That's amazing, like for a girl, that's...

give me a joke, give me a joke.

Squaring off with Wilma I knew you don't get to

be a town of champions without fighting for it.

If you want anything in a small town people have to step up.

Like our beautiful ball diamond,

people stepped up.

If there's anyone that can take a joke it's the

Manitou Ladies beer league players.

The Manitou mood swingers, love that name, love that

name and babes with balls, also very good name,

very good name.

Oh yeah!

It was too high.

Pretty much all I know about baseball is stuff

I've learned from movie quotes right.

Of course we've got Field of Dreams,

if you build it they will come.

And that's what happened here, Manitou, the farmers

and the fundraisers built the ball diamond we were at.

And people did come.

Alright ladies you ready for this?

Bring it on, show us what you got.

Your mascara runs better than you.

There's definitely something going on

with these ladies.

And of course the quote from League of their Own,

there's no crying in baseball.

Everyone move in, it's a no hitter.

Ah don't move in!

Don't move infield in!

I was not crying, that was ragweed,

that was ragweed girls.

I keep wondering how come so many talented

people in Manitou choose to stay here?

And then I had an epiphany I realized

that's a stupid question to ask.

All that matters is that they did and the town

benefited from it and now it's going into the next

generation and now you can see it already.

I did chip my tooth but I got the crocodile

in the end, I got it, right in the arse,

it was an arse shot.

If I learned anything in Manitou,

it's that the heart of the town's survival is

the power of its story...

All you can do is show up,

do your best and good lord willing,

things will get better from here on in.

Finally show time, the town's arrived,

the thespians are ready.

And I'm wearing a costume made for someone smaller then me.

I auditioned literally for spear carrier

number two and I did not get the part.

You know those who conspire against us and

yet you allow them access to my throne.

I did still end up getting a very vital part,

I got fanner number two.

As Canadians we're naive, we don't know how hot it

was in Egypt so it's very important my fanning,

you know how does the saying go,

there's no small parts, just [beep] ones.

I have discovered that Manitou is a town of champions,

everywhere else I go in the country I will

tell them about Manitou, what a great town it is,

I'm going to tell them where you are,

tell them that they should come visit,

just do me a favour, don't move the town again.

I'll look like an idiot, I'll look like an idiot.

You know just before I came over here my mom gave

me a call for the first time since I got to

Manitou, she said how's it going out there?

I said oh mom you know it's a pretty

typical prairie town.

I struck out with the ladies, fanned a pharaoh,

yodeled with a yodeler and basically just hang out

with hall of famers.

She said what are you talking about?

I said mom I'm talking about Manitou, Manitoba,

thanks so much everybody, you've been great.

It's a celebration of Manitou.

He understood what we are all about.

We're so proud of our town and proud of

everybody that's here.

That was fantastic.

Very talented.

He moves around really well.

It was very good.

Enjoyed it very much.

Hit home on all the points he made.

Bow and arrow's not really working for him.

Our hometown presented to us in such a positive way.

My cheeks just hurt I laughed so hard.

Thanks for helping us to see it.