Labour Day Classic 2026

It’s the most anticipated regular season game on the calendar. It’s tradition. It’s iconic. It’s a day where we celebrate labour by not labouring. It’s the Labour Day Classic!!

Regular readers will know that I generally open my Labour Day post with some jokes or smart assed comments about Winnipeg fans. I will go a different direction this year. It seems the new hot trend when you don’t like someone is to arbitrarily rename important geographic locations. With that in mind I would like to make the following announcement:

-       Winnipeg will be henceforth known as Loserpeg (that one’s pretty obvious)

-       Lake Winnipeg will be renamed Lake Poor Dental Hygiene (also fairly obvious)

-       And in recognition of their preferred romantic partners, Manitoba will be renamed Attractive Barnyard Animal-itoba.

Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Onto the game…

Labour Day aside this is a massive game in terms of the standings in the west. One game separates these teams and second place is up for grabs. Add in an electric (and likely intoxicated) sold out crowd and Mosaic will be rocking.

The Bombers for me can be described by a Toby Keith lyric “I ain’t as good as a I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was”. If the comical streak of Grey Cup choke jobs, followed by appearing in the crossover last year were not sign enough, watching the Bombers this year has made it painfully obvious that they are a team on the decline. But, like last week’s game against Montreal showed, they still have the talent to play at a high level in small doses, so they cannot be taken lightly. 

After spending most of the start of the season seemingly not remembering that Brady Olivera is on the roster, the Bombers have finally gone back to feeding him the ball. Low and behold good things happen. I don’t know how you look at that offense and make any other determination than Olivera is your best chance but it would seem Tommy Condell disagrees. In what could be a rain game the #1 key is slowing down Olivera. The Riders have the #2 run D in the CFL so they are certainly up to the challenge. I am very excited to see what Aubrey Miller can do as a starter. He is a demon on teams and that mentality is going to be needed to stop Olivera. Without Olivera Winnipeg is a subpar passing attack, an o-line that gives up a ton of sacks and a QB who amazingly keeps hurting his “neck” when his head is bounced off the turf. I know Demski is a Rider killer and will probably have 2 TDs but if our D-line can disrupt Collaros and get pressure on him good things will happen… for us. 

Offensively I am begging… begging… for 4 quarters of effort. We can’t sleep through the first half or disappear for two quarter to build drama. We need consistent production. Winnipeg is #1 in pass defense but 2^nd worst in run D. Again on a day that might feature rain we need to see a lot of Conley. Jefferson and Ceresna are beasts along that line. Running helps negate their pass rush. When Harris does throw he needs patience and good decisions. Take what they are giving and don’t turn the damn ball over. Passing game will clearly need to run through KeeSean but I see Wiebe playing a big roll underneath. Also, would not shock me to see Mueller try and get Letcher some offense touches to show a new wrinkle. We need to get TDs and not settle for FGs (because we all know O’Shea loves to settle for FGs).

The one thing I can say with a fair degree of certainty is that this game will be close. In the last 4 Labour Day Classics the largest margin of victory was 4 points. Great for excitement, bad for my heart.

Two things have me believing in a win. 1 – It’s Labour Day. I have seen Brett Smith, Jake Dolgeala, Rocky Butler, Michael Bishop all win on Labour Day and it was not because they were particularly excellent QBs. There is something magical about this game that always favours the Riders. 2 – Winnipeg is 5-1 vs. the East but 1-4 vs. the West. Despite what the Manitoba education system might teach you, Saskatchewan is in the West.

So rest up your livers, vocal chords and hearts and get ready to let loose on Sunday.

Riders by a Tommy Time TD (who else?)