Features
Realtor Danielle Margolis goes for a walk in the desert… and raises $38,000 for Winnipeg women’s shelter
By MYRON LOVE
Realtor Danielle Margolis recently went for a trek in the desert to raise money for an initiative she strongly believes in. The desert was the Sahara and Margolis one of 120 Royal LePage realtors from across the country – divided into four groups – who took part in the “Sahara Desert Challenge”, on behalf of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation – in support of women’s and children’s shelters across Canada.
The “Sahara Desert Challenge” was the third such Royal LePage initiative, which consists of hikes every two years in an exotic locale. The first one centred around Machu Pichu in Peru. The second was in Iceland.
It was almost a year since Margolis first spoke with the Jewish Post & News about her plan to participate in the 110-km fundraising trek through eastern Morocco, a project she said in which she was participating to raise awareness and to help provide a safer place for women and children to live.
Danielle married into a philanthropic family and is honored to carry on her mother in-law, Rae Margolis’ memory by giving back, she explained.
As Danielle points out, community and philanthropy were very important to Rae and the fundraising walk across the Sahara is one of the ways in which Danielle (who is married to Rae’s son, Jon) will be paying tribute to Rae’s memory.
(Rae Margolis is also survived by Gary, her husband of 47 years, and her daughter, Tara, and husband, Aaron Calvo.)
Danielle added that, in a conversation with his mother, Jon told her about Danielle’s plan to hike in the Sahara. “Rae was proud and excited that I would be doing something like this,” Danielle said. “She was pleased that I would be carrying on her good work for the benefit if people we don’t know.”
Danielle and Jon Margolis are both realtors long associated with Royal LePage Dynamic Real Estate. (They work out of the Corydon office.) “I was interested in participating for the first Royal LePage Shelter Foundation fundraising initiative,” Danielle said at the time of the previous interview, “ but I was pregnant with our daughter and couldn’t go,” Danielle explains. (She and Jon also have a six-year-old son.) “This time it felt like the right time and place,” she says.
“I had always wanted to see Morocco and the Sahara Desert.”
Margolis– who has always been physically active –began training in the spring, often with her Mom and a sister participant Nicole Hacault from Winnipeg. Her regimen consisted of cycling three times a week, light weight training and regular hikes.
She also made sure to buy a good pair of hiking boots.
The group arrived on November 17 in the Moroccan city of Marrakech where the hikers had the opportunity to visit the Medina, the old Jewish quarter and continued onto Ouarzazate, an area popular with film production. “The people were very friendly and welcoming,” she says, “and the guides were great.”
The entourage began their trek at a place called Achbarou – “the door of the desert” – about an eight-hour drive east of Marrakech. The group covered anywhere from 16 to 35 km a day.
“Big 4 by4’s carried our supplies and infrastructure from camp to camp,” Danielle explains. “We also had a camel walking with us in case someone ran out of water or had to be evacuated. There were many who suffered from horrible blisters, lost toenails and other ailments. I counted myself lucky in that I came through unscathed.”
Margolis says that she was surprised at how varied the terrain was. “We would be walking for hours on ground that was completely flat with nothing to see for miles around. Other days, the ground would be rocky with some vegetation. We walked over some huge dunes and many smaller ones. The sand changed from grey to red to mixed with volcanic stone. One time, we walked along an old, chocolate-shaving like sea bed. “
She notes that the group did see some nomads and Berbers near the end of their hike – but no sign of animal life except for some burrows in the ground.
The journey ended at Anoun El Fraolia. She reports that her favourite memories were sleeping outside under a starry sky unencumbered by the many lights of civilization, the spectacular sunsets and Jebel Lamrakeb, a approximately 65 storey high sand dune about 13 km from the Algerian border.
“We could see the border from the top of the dune,” she says. It was absolutely breathtaking.
The trip to Morocco concluded on November 30 with a farewell supper at a restaurant, called Dar-Cherifa, in a 16th century building in Marrakech.
Danielle reports that that she raised over $38,000 – the largest amount among all the participants. She is donating the bulk of the money to Bravestone Centre Inc. – in Winnipeg – a secondary shelter where abused women can stay for up to a year. A portion of the funds raised will also support domestic violence prevention programs across Canada, including those focused on youth, to help break the cycle of family violence.
She says that she appreciates the strong support of her husband, Jon, and the lead role her father-on-law, Gary, played in her fundraising efforts. He took on the role of campaign manager.
“The hardest thing for me was leaving my children for two weeks,” she notes. “I had never been away from them for that long.
“But I also want to set an example for them – even though they are still young – of giving back to the community through donations of time and energy as well as money.
“I believe that an experience like this has made me a better parent and most importantly, a better person.”
Features
When a Personal Loan Can Be a Smarter Option Than Carrying Credit Card Debt
A lot of people keep credit card debt longer than they planned because the monthly minimum looks manageable, but that is the trap. The payment feels small enough to live with, but much of it goes to interest when the balance is high. That means the debt can drag on for years, even if you keep paying on time.
A personal loan can be a smarter option when you already know the debt will not be gone quickly. Instead of carrying a revolving balance with a high rate and no firm payoff date, you move the debt into a fixed loan with regular payments and a clear endpoint. That does not solve every debt problem, but in the right situation, it can reduce interest costs and make repayment more realistic.
The Core Difference Between These Two Types of Debt
Credit cards are flexible, so you can borrow, repay, and borrow again without applying every time. That flexibility is useful for day-to-day spending, emergencies, and short-term borrowing. It becomes expensive when a large balance sits there month after month.
A personal loan is structured. You borrow one amount upfront, then repay it over a set term, often between one and five years. The payment usually stays the same each month. That structure matters because it forces steady progress.
When a Personal Loan Usually Makes More Sense
A personal loan tends to be the better choice when the debt is already turning into a medium-term problem rather than a short-term one. That often means you are no longer using the card for convenience. You are using it as borrowed money and paying a high price for that access.
It can be a smart move in cases like these:
- You are carrying a balance for several months and do not see a realistic way to clear it soon
- Your card interest rate is much higher than the loan rate you qualify for
- You have debt across two or three cards and want one payment instead of several
- You need a fixed monthly amount so you can build a proper budget
- You want a firm payoff date instead of open-ended repayment
The Biggest Practical Advantage Is Predictability
If your monthly budget is already tight, uncertainty makes everything harder. Credit card minimum payments can rise as rates change or balances grow. Multiple cards also mean multiple due dates, different limits, and a higher chance of missing one payment.
A personal loan can make life simpler. You know the payment amount, the term, and the month the debt should be gone. That makes it easier to plan around rent, groceries, utilities, childcare, and other fixed costs. For many households, that predictability is just as valuable as the interest savings.
When you are comparing offers, a reputable financial institution like, for example, Innovation Federal Credit Union can explain the full cost of borrowing, not just the headline rate. That matters because the real question is not whether the payment looks fine today. The real question is whether the loan will make your debt cheaper, easier to manage, and less likely to come back.
Where People Make Mistakes
Paying off a card with a loan helps only if the card balance stays low afterwards. If the card fills up again, you end up with both the loan and new revolving debt. That is usually worse than the original problem.
Another mistake is focusing only on the monthly payment. A longer loan term can make the payment feel easier, but it may also increase the total amount of interest paid over time. A smaller payment is not automatically a better deal.
Before signing anything, check these points carefully:
- The loan interest rate
- Any origination or administration fees
- The total amount you will repay over the full term
- Whether you can make extra payments without penalty
- Whether the monthly payment truly fits your budget
- What you will do with the credit cards after the balance is paid off
When a Personal Loan Is Not the Better Option
If your credit is weak, the loan rate may not be much better than your card rate. In that case, the savings may be too small to justify the switch. If fees are high, the benefit can shrink even more.
It also may not help if the real issue is cash flow. If your income is not covering regular monthly bills, replacing card debt with a loan does not solve the shortage. The payment may look neater, but the pressure remains. In that case, the better step may be a hard review of spending, extra income, or professional debt advice.
A credit card can still be a better tool when you can pay off purchases quickly and in full. Used that way, a card can be convenient and cost nothing in interest. The problem starts when short-term borrowing quietly becomes long-term debt.
How to Decide
Pull together the numbers for every card you carry. Write down the balance, the interest rate, the minimum payment, and how much you usually pay each month. Then compare that with the full cost of a personal loan offer.
Look at these questions:
- How much interest will I pay if I keep the debt on my cards
- How much interest and fees will I pay with the loan
- How long will each option take to clear
- Can I manage the loan payment even in a tight month
- Am I ready to stop using the paid-off cards for routine spending
If the loan gives you a lower total cost, a clear payoff schedule, and a payment you can genuinely handle, it may be the smarter move.
A Good Loan Strategy Includes a Behaviour Plan
If you use a personal loan to clear card balances, decide in advance what happens next. Some people keep one card open for emergencies and put the others away. Others lower their limits or remove saved card details from shopping apps. Small changes like that can prevent the old pattern from restarting.
Set up automatic payments if possible. Put the loan due date just after payday. Build even a small emergency fund alongside repayment so an unexpected car repair or vet bill does not go straight back on the card. Those steps may sound basic, but they often make the difference between lasting progress and another round of debt.
To Sum Up
A personal loan can be a smarter option than carrying credit card debt when the debt is already lingering, the loan rate is meaningfully lower, and the monthly payment fits your budget without strain. The real advantage is not only lower interest. It is structure, clarity, and a realistic path to being done with the debt.
That said, a loan works best when it is paired with changed habits. If the card balance returns after the transfer, the loan will not have solved much.
Features
The United Arab Emirates are Moving Away from Saudi Arabia
By HENRY SREBRNIK The United Arab Emirates, the world’s third-largest oil producer, quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the end of April. And that’s a very big deal.
Apart from its effect on the cartel’s ability to control oil prices, the move reflects a widening confrontation with Saudi Arabia and a fundamental realignment of alliances as a result of the current Middle East war over Iran, as well as the ongoing civil war in Yemen.
The Saudi-Emirati fracture is not new, but it crossed a qualitative threshold in late 2025. On December 29, Saudi Arabian air strikes targeted an Emirati weapons convoy at the port of Mukalla in Yemen, an act without precedent between two nominal allies. Riyadh then publicly demanded the withdrawal of all UAE forces from Yemeni territory and in early 2026, that call was answered with the dissolution of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), Abu Dhabi’s principal proxy in the country.
The Saudi foreign ministry accused the UAE of pressuring the STC to conduct military operations along the kingdom’s southern borders, describing the move as a direct threat to Saudi national security and a “red line” for Riyadh that it would not hesitate to confront.
These developments also point to a significant Emirati miscalculation. By backing the STC’s advance into eastern Yemen along the coast, Abu Dhabi has sought to build leverage over Saudi Arabia and Oman while consolidating its influence across the Arabian Sea and the Horn of Africa.
The Emiratis, however, underestimated both Riyadh’s willingness to assert itself directly in its immediate neighborhood and its enduring leverage over Yemen’s political and military actors. The episode emphasizes a central reality of the conflict: While the UAE has built deep influence through local partners, Saudi Arabia remains the decisive external actor in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia seeks to preserve the territorial integrity of Arab states and to position itself as a regional stabilising power. The UAE, on the other hand, has built, since 2015, a doctrine founded on force projection through non-state actors in Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
The UAE has backed the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Sudanese civil war that began in April 2023, while Riyadh supports the latter. In Somalia, breaking ranks with other Arab nations, the UAE became the first Arab and Muslim country to recognise the breakaway region of Somaliland.
“The Saudis want obedience, or at least alignment with their regional policies,” according to Jonny Gannon, a former senior CIA officer with decades of experience in the Middle East. “The Emiratis don’t want to be obedient. They want optionality.”
Most important, in 2020, the UAE became the first Gulf country and only the third Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords facilitated by the first Trump administration. That paved the way for other Arab countries, such as Bahrain and Morocco, to normalize ties with Israel.
The Saudis have attacked the UAE as “Israel’s Trojan Horse” and denounced the Abraham Accords, as “a political military alliance dressed in the garb of religion.” Emirati officials believe the Saudis are waging a deliberate incitement campaign centered on the UAE’s relationship with Israel. After Saudi Arabia bombed the UAE’s partner forces in Yemen last December, Saudi posts criticizing Israel spiked dramatically, with 77 per cent of the comments attacking the UAE as “Israel’s proxy executing Zionist plans to divide Arab states.”
The accords helped deepen economic, cultural, trade, investment, and intelligence cooperation between the UAE and Israel, which extended to defence as well. This is perhaps why Iran made the UAE its biggest target in the current war. Iran has launched roughly 550 ballistic and cruise missiles and over 2,200 drones specifically at the Emirates. For years, the UAE had pursued a strategy of “omni-alignment,” attempting to maintain deep security ties with Washington and economic ties with Beijing, while fostering a détente with Tehran to protect its status as a safe haven for global capital.
The Iranian bombardment violently disproved this thesis. It proved that economic integration and diplomatic hedging do not grant immunity when regional hostilities boil over. In a historic move, Israel deployed an active Iron Dome battery, accompanied by dozens of Israel Defence Forces operators, directly to the UAE to help defend Emirati airspace against Iran. This marked the very first time Israel deployed its premier air-defence system and its own troops to protect a foreign Arab nation. The UAE realized that when its survival was on the line, the Arab League issued statements, but Israel sent interceptors.
This traumatic realization served as the catalyst for Abu Dhabi to aggressively assert its own sovereignty, deciding that if it must endure the costs of a regional war, it will no longer subvert its economic or political interests to regional consortiums that offer no tangible protection.
So Abu Dhabi has made a choice that goes well beyond energy policy. It is purchasing American strategic goodwill, at the precise moment when its regional alliance framework is collapsing and when it needs a substitute security guarantee. With Iran having conducted direct attacks on Emirati territory and shipping, and with Saudi Arabia having shifted into open confrontation mode, Abu Dhabi’s strategic calculus has fundamentally changed. Washington is no longer a preferred partner. It has become a necessity.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Gary Golden still rocking after 50 years
By MYRON LOVE Our Jewish community has produced several high profile musicians over the years. Among more recent stars, the members of Finjan come to mind, as does Ariel Posen – as well as Danny Greaves, Joey Serlin and Sammy Kohn of the rock band, “The Watchmen.” Arguably though, no other Jewish musician has hit the heights that Gary Golden has.
“We were all learning to play something,” Golden recalls of his teen years at Grant Park High School. “Everyone thought the guitar was really cool.”
(A an aside, I recently read an autobiography of the multi-talented Theodore Bikel who noted at one point that, by the early ‘60s, for the first time guitars outsold pianos.)
On Thursday, March 13, Golden and his band, Harlequin, celebrated their 50th anniversary as a band with a sold-out performance at Club Regent.
“It was wonderful,” says the veteran rocker. “If anyone had told us when we started that we would still be going 50 years later, we probably would have laughed .”
The Golden family (including parents Don and Helen and older sister Darlene) were among the first wave of Jewish families to relocate to south River Heights in the 1950s. Coming of age in the exuberant 1960s, Golden remembers that everyone his age was immersed in music.
Golden notes that he learned to play the guitar through trial and error.He recalls that he joined his first band when he was 18. “A couple of friends from high school were looking for a guitar player to join their band. Our band played local venues as well as touring throughout the province.”
Through contacts he made in the local music business, Golden got to know the Murphy siblings and David Budzak. Together, they formed what Golden describes as Winnipeg’s “most progressive” band at that time. Performing under the name Bentwood Rocker, the band toured from Northwestern Ontario to the West Coast.
In1975, Golden and Budzak hooked up with musicians Ralph James and the late John Hanna – both recently having moved back to
Winnipeg from Toronto – to form a band called Holy Hannah. The latter were looking for a guitar and keyboard player – that would be Golden – and a drummer (Budzak).
“After six months, we added another two musicians (one being singer George Belanger another being guitar player Glen Willows) and changed our name to Harlequin,” Golden says.
It has been quite a ride for Golden and Harlequin.
“We gelled,” he recalls. “We had the right people. And we started touring right away.”
“We were everywhere. We toured throughout the United States. We were in Venezuela. We performed in Puerto Rica in front of 35,000 people. We saw more of Canada than most politicians.
“Everywhere we went, we met a lot of wonderful people. Music is a universal language. We gave a lot of people a lot of joy.”
Along the way, the band put out six albums and was the subject of a documentary.
Golden reports that Willows and Belanger wrote most of the original material. “While I contributed some music, I was satisfied playing guitar,” he notes.
In 1987, however, Gary Golden stepped away from the band. “I was tired,” he says. “I also wanted to start a family. I had seen too many of my colleagues get married and try to have a family life. Too often, it didn’t work, The odds were against them.”
Golden was able to realize his new goal. To earn a reasonable living, he first tried real estate.
“It wasn’t for me,” he says.
He found his niche as a financial planner. He worked for Investor’s Group for ten years – then moved to the credit union world.
“In the private sector, I found that there was too much of an emphasis on sales,” he observes. “Working for the credit union, I had more scope to really advise people in terms of prudent investment. That better reflected my values.”
After 20 years or so, Golden notes, and having done reasonably well financially, Golden retired.
In 2007, George Belanger asked Golden to get back into the fray. The two are the only original members of Harlequin who are still active.
“I said yes and here we are,” the long time guitar player says.
Gary Golden is now in his early 70s and not immune to the vagaries of aging. “I try to be proactive,” he says. “I don’t sit. I work out regularly. I walk and do the treadmill. And I practice guitar for at least an hour every day.
After 50 years, Golden says that he has no plans to retire any time soon. “Being on stage is electric,” he notes. “They may have to carry me off stage.”