Ace Burpee’s Top 100 Most Fascinating Manitobans for 2025

Ace Burpee talks to Rachel Lagacé about his list of most fascinating Manitobans of 2025.

I really enjoy making this list. People are just out there being absolutely incredible, and I love sharing a few of their stories here. Enjoy, and all the best in 2026.

-Ace Burpee

The Bekios family: For over 40 years, the family-run Maxime’s restaurant on St. Mary’s has hosted countless special occasions for literally thousands of Manitobans. November marked the end of an incredible run for the absolutely iconic spot.

Sara and Kate Manness: The Manness sisters, from La Salle, captured gold with Team Canada at the women’s U18 world hockey championships. In doing so, they became the first twins in Canadian history to do so with the same team. Tremendous.

Josh Hildebrandt, Andrew Hildebrandt, Kayden Grattan and Cody Dueck: This is so cool. The four make up the Morris School Advanced Robotics team, Blue Bombur. Their dedication and all out commitment to building better robots earned them a trip to the Vex Robotics World Championships, the largest robotics competition on the planet. The team of Grade 9-11 students racked up countless other robotics titles along the way. Big shout out to J.P. Jamieson, the school’s technology teacher and their coach.

Ernest Monias: One of the most important and influential artists in Canadian music history, Monias, often dubbed “Elvis of the north,” released his first album in 1979. Since then, some 21 albums later, Monias has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Indigenous Music Awards and is a member of the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame. At this year’s Western Canadian Music Awards, Ernest received the WCMA Heritage Award for his significant contributions to the music industry.

Kenneth Paupanekis: A proud Elder of Kinosao Sipi Cree Nation (Norway House), Paupanekis is an absolute legend and champion in the preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages. Fluent in Cree, Anishinaabe, French and English, his contributions assure future generations access to culturally relevant learning materials through development and advocacy of language programs at Manitoba universities. This year, Paupanekis was recognized with the Order of Manitoba.

Read more of Ace’s Burpee’s Top 100 Most Fascinating Manitobans for 2025 here.

Ace Burpee is the host of The Ace Burpee Show on 103.1 Virgin Radio and proudly hails from Cooks Creek.

Widely recognized for his tireless dedication to community causes, Ace has spent years championing countless charitable initiatives across the province. From galas and walks, to school events, workshops and community discussions, he has hosted thousands of events, lending his voice and energy to organizations large and small. Few groups in Manitoba have not felt the impact of his work.