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List of Mobile Suit Gundam characters

This is a list of fictional characters from the 1979 Japanese science fiction anime television series Mobile Suit Gundam.

Amuro Ray
Amuro Ray (アムロ・レイ) is the son of Tem Ray, the project leader for the Earth Federation's Project V, which produces the prototype mobile suits Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank to combat the Principality of Zeon's Zaku. At the beginning of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, Amuro is merely a 15-year-old civilian, along with his friends Fraw Bow and Hayato Kobayashi, living in Side 7, one of the few space colonies untouched by the One Year War at the time. Amuro is a talented amateur mechanic, which would be called an Otaku nowadays, and as a hobby designed the basketball-sized talking robot Haro. Born on Earth in Prince Rupert, Like his rival Char Aznable, Amuro got his own nickname during the One Year War: the White Devil (白い悪魔). He was given this moniker after defeating 14 MS-09R Rick Doms in the Battle of Solomon. Amuro and Char Aznable faced off several times during the course of the One Year War, but it was not until when Lalah Sune was killed during one of their battles that this rivalry turned into a fierce hatred of one another.

Sayla Mass

Sayla Mass (セイラ・マス) is a medical student from the incomplete single space colony of the Earth Federation's Side 7 who ends up on the White Base along with other civilians including Amuro Ray, Fraw Bow, Hayato Kobayashi, Kai Shiden and Mirai Yashima. She would later be revealed to be Artesia Som Deikun (アルテイシア・ソム・ダイクン)), the daughter of the Zeon Republic's founder Zeon Zum Deikun and the younger sister of Char Aznable. Sayla is almost immediately recruited as a soldier, and set to the task of watching over the civilian refugees. With the near total lack of experienced personnel to defend White Base (most original crew members were killed in the Principality of Zeon's attack on Side 7), Sayla first serves as acting captain Bright Noah's communications officer and later as a combat pilot.

Bright Noa
When Char Aznable attacks the colony, Side 7, all the officers on the White Base are incapacitated, leaving Ensign Bright Noah (ブライト・ノア) with the highest seniority on the ship, and he assumes command from the wounded Captain Paolo Cassius, who later dies of his injuries. After a series of close calls and with help from Amuro Ray and the Gundam, Bright brings the White Base safely to Federation headquarters at Jaburo. Because of the Zeon forces obsession with the White Base, the Federation allows Bright to remain in command and sends the ship out as a decoy. Bright commands the White Base through several major operations in The One Year War, including the last stand of Zeon at asteroid A Baoa Qu.

Mirai Yashima
Mirai Yashima (ミライ・ヤシマ) is one of the three White Base crew to display Newtype abilities, along with Amuro Ray and Sayla Mass. Mirai is a civilian who joins the White Base crew after the attack on Side 7. Her training as a space glider pilot makes her the best choice to take the White Base's helm, and Mirai soon becomes both Bright Noah's trusted deputy and a surrogate mother to the ship's young crew. She is also the daughter of a powerful and well-connected family, which causes complications later in the series when she is reunited with her fiancée Side 6's district attorney Cameron Bloom, whom she disliked as all he cared about was avoiding the war by fleeing to Side 6. Mirai was also briefly attracted to Sleggar Law but Sleggar pointed out that she was just too good for someone like him and Sleggar gave her the ring that belonged to his mother shortly before he died.

Fraw Bow
Fraw Bow (フラウ・ボゥ) is Amuro's close friend and confidante, and devoted to his welfare. With Amuro's parents separated and his father Dr. Tem Ray frequently away on business for the Earth Federation's Project V, Fraw takes it upon herself to make sure that the perhaps charitably-described "engineering nerd" or "mecha otaku" eats, sleeps, bathes, lives in some degree of cleanliness, and—in her initial appearance—follows military evacuation orders. Fraw and Amuro become crew members of White Base, along other Side 7 civilians. Becoming the primary caretaker of three young children, Katz Hawin, Letz Cofan, and Kikka Kitamoto, in addition to Amuro. As the distance between her and Amuro grows, Fraw joins the medical staff to help distract herself. She is married to Hayato some time after the One Year War. Fraw finishes the war serving on the ship's bridge as White Base's communications officer.

Hayato Kobayashi
Hayato Kobayashi (ハヤト・コバヤシ) is one of Amuro Ray's neighbors on Side 7. Short and stocky and with a tendency towards insecurity, Hayato often measures himself against his friend Amuro's accomplishments. After surviving the attack on his Side 7 home, Hayato becomes the co-pilot for the RX-75 Guntank alongside Ryu José, largely out of a sense of rivalry with Amuro. After Ryu sacrifices his life to save Amuro from Hamon Crowley, Hayato continues to pilot the Guntank after it is modified for use by a single person.

Kai Shiden
Kai Shiden (カイ・シデン)

At the onset of the One Year War in UC 0079, Kai Shiden was living in the space colony Green Oasis in Bunch 1 of Side 7. Kai Shiden is tall and lanky in stature with a mop of gray hair, and his snarky and sarcastic personality often gets him scolded or slapped. After surviving the Zeon attack on Side 7, Kai became one of the many evacuees escaping on the Pegasus class assault carrier SCV-70 White Base. However, due to a shortage of crew and soldiers to staff the warship, Kai was asked to become a pilot to help defend the White Base from frequent Zeon attacks. Kai was assigned to pilot the RX-77 Guncannon mobile suit, the unit he would remain in charge of for the rest of the One Year War.

A natural coward, cynic, and pessimist, Kai could often be found on the sidelines making smart-alecky comments. His fighting style leaned towards bombarding foes with the Guncannon's long-range armaments, but when he got in a fix he was able to pull off hand-to-hand attacks with the Guncannon. He dislikes it when things move slowly. However, Kai quickly became disenchanted with war and he decided to desert the White Base when it was docked for repairs in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In Belfast, Kai meets a young girl named Miharu Ratokey who lives just outside the city, and agrees to sneak her onto the White Base and take her to the Earth Federation headquarters in Jaburo, located along the Amazon River in South America. Kai soon figures out that Miharu was actually a hired Zeon spy sent to infiltrate the White Base and discover Jaburo's location.

During a sudden Zeon attack on the White Base while traveling over the Atlantic Ocean, Kai and Miharu go out in a Gunperry transport plane. During the battle, controls in the cockpit get stuck and Miharu goes down to help fire the plane's missiles manually. But she is knocked from the Gunperry by the missiles' exhaust blast, and falls out of the plane over the Atlantic Ocean. Miharu's death marks a turning point in Kai's development as he works through his grief.

Ryu José

Ryu José (リュウ・ホセイ) A large, stocky Latino man with a dusky complexion, Ryu was a test pilot-in-training for the Earth Federation on Side 7. When the colony was attacked by Char Aznable, Ryu took control of the Core Fighter jet to protect the White Base. Being a gentle, caring, considerate comrade, Ryu was the best mediator to ease the tension between the uptight Bright Noah and the young civilian recruits.

Ryu is killed during the White Base's attack from Crowley Hamon. Though critically wounded in firefights during Ramba Ral's attempted boarding attack, Ryu drives his Core Fighter kamikaze-style into Hamon's fighter in order to save the lives of Amuro Ray and the crew of the White Base.

His death moves the entire crew of White Base to tears and the reality of war truly began to sink in, as everyone felt responsible for his death. Several crew members even try to call to his spirit for advice later on. Amuro is enraged when the only reward for Ryu's heroism is a three rank posthumous promotion at Jaburo.

Sleggar Law

Sleggar Law joins the White Base crew after they arrive at Jaburo. Sleggar initially looks down on the White Bases' young crew, but soon develops a respect for them. He has a brief romance with Mirai Yashima. However, Sleggar feels that Mirai is too wonderful and deserves better than someone like him, so he rejects further advancement in their relationship. Shortly before his final sortie against the MA-08 Big Zam at the Battle of Solomon, Sleggar gives Mirai a ring that he inherited from his mother.

Matilda Ajan
Matilda Ajan (マチルダ・アジャン) is the commanding officer of the Earth Federation's Medea supply corps. At times Matilda also serves as a personal envoy for General Revil, carrying messages and orders from him to other ships. When the White Base is trapped in Zeon-controlled airspace over North America, it is the vital supplies delivered by the Medea supply corps, which has allowed the beleaguered assault carrier to make desperately needed repairs and escape over the Pacific Ocean. Due to her habits of showing up when the White Base is in a bind and helping them in whatever way she can, Miss Matilda is seen as the guardian angel of the vessel. Also due to her stunning beauty she becomes the dream girl of many of the young male crew members staffing the White Base, especially the young Amuro Ray. Miss Matilda is engaged to Lieutenant Woody Malden, who was a chief military engineer stationed in the Earth Federation headquarters of Jaburo. When the ship reached Asia, Miss Matilda gave the White Base orders to head to Ukraine to take part in Operation Odessa, a large-scale military operation to wrest control of the mining facilities at Odessa away from the Principality of Zeon. However, en route to participate in the battle the White Base is attacked by the Zeon ace pilot trio, the Black Tri-Stars. In order to protect the White Base, Matilda rammed her Medea into one of the Black Tri-Stars' MS-09 Doms, in an attempt to knock it down. But Dom pilot Ortega hit back, smashing the Medea's cockpit so the transporter crashed into the ground, exploding and killing Matilda instantly. Lieutenant Junior Grade Matilda Ajan was later listed as killed in action on November 6, U.C.0079. Afterwards, Amuro meets Matilda's fiance Lieutenant Woody in Jaburo and apologizes for not being able to protect Matilda, but Woody forgives him, since it was war, and she died protecting her friends. During Char's assault on Jaburo Lieutenant Woody also dies while protecting the ship like his girlfriend did, as he attacked Char using a simple attack hoverfighter that was easily destroyed by Char's Z'Gok, but gave White Base crew members enough time to escape.

General Revil

Admiral Revil (also referred to as General Revil) is one of the Earth Federation's leading Space Force commanders. He is mentioned often, but does not make any personal appearances until the latter half of the series. Before his appointment as head of the Earth Federation Space Force Revil was a Lieutenant General from the Earth Federation Ground Force. Revil's biggest claim to fame came after being captured by the Zeon's Black Tri-Stars after his flagship Ananke was sunk by Zeon's mobile suit attack forces during the Battle of Loum. Shortly thereafter, Revil, aided by Federal agents and sympathizers within Zeon, escaped to Side 6 and returned to the Federation. Broadcasting from Luna II, he made his famous "Zeon is Exhausted!" speech from what he saw in Zeon during his capture. This speech boosted the morale of the Federation Forces, caused the Federation to toughen their stance, and resulted in the rejection of the terms of their surrender (it was said that Kycilia Zabi smashed the table in rage after hearing the news). Despite this, both sides agreed to a ban on NBC weapons, colony drops and maltreatment of POWs by signing the Antarctic Treaty.

Char Aznable
Char Aznable (シャア・アズナブル)

Lalah Sune
Lalah Sune (ララァ・スン)

Lalah is a young woman who is the "star student" of Professor Flanagan due to her strong Newtype abilities, and as such is also one of the key test subjects in the development of Newtype-related weaponry. Being one of the earliest and most successful known Newtypes, her powers are accompanied by a profound spiritual awareness.

Despite her gentle nature, Lalah is fiercely loyal to the man who saved her life —- Char Aznable, the scheming "Red Comet". In the novel he found her in an Indian brothel, where she worked after losing her parents in the war. In the MSG:Origin, episode 7:Encounter with Lalah, her parents were alive and she was sending money to them from her work helping a mobster win at gambling. This attracts a mob called Manaus, and Char takes her away using a Mobile worker. She was assigned to pilot the Newtype use mobile armor MAN-08 Elmeth as a part of the Newtype research project, conducted by the Flanagan Institute. Lalah is ranked as an ensign under Char.

Lalah and Amuro Ray first met on Side 6, where Amuro found Lalah in front of a lakeside house. They spoke briefly and Amuro was attracted to her with his Newtype powers. They met again sometime later when Amuro's car got stuck in the mud. Another vehicle pulled over and offered to help him, aboard it was Lalah and Char Aznable, Amuro's archrival, the two had not yet seen each other face to face. Amuro immediately recognised both of them, but Char and Lalah had yet to figure out Amuro's identity.

Lalah left a profound impact on Amuro, and was considered his first great love. During the Elmeth's test run, which saw its Newtype "bits" weaponry wreak havoc on the Federal Fleet guarding the newly captured Zeon base Solomon, Amuro engaged the Elmeth in the Gundam but found out the pilot was Lalah. Both then realized they were soulmates and shared a "Newtype bonding", a sort of telepathic bond. Unfortunately Char arrived and chastised Lalah for "consorting with the enemy", and raised his beam naginata to strike down Amuro's wingman Sayla Mass, piloting the CoreBooster jet. Lalah told Char to stop, for she sensed the pilot was Char's sister Artesia. Char hesitated but this gave Amuro the opportunity to sever the weapon arm of Char's Gelgoog, incapacitating it. Amuro went for the killing blow, but Lalah knocked away Char and took the fatal strike. This has a profound effect on both men, as their rivalry escalates from a professional to a very personal one, which culminated in the movie Char's Counterattack.

Although she died before the end of the One Year War, Lalah Sune's spirit occasionally returns from beyond the grave to haunt both Char and Amuro Ray, as seen in Char's Counterattack.

Ramba Ral

Longtime friend of Zeon Zum Deikun, Ramba Ral (ランバ・ラル) took in Deikun's two children, Casval and Artesia, after Deikun was assassinated. In order to protect them, the Ral family later sent them to live on Earth under the names Edward and Sayla Mass. Ramba Ral joined the Zeon military in Universal Century 0064. He quickly made himself known as a great tactician, and a master of guerrilla warfare. Ramba Ral first made a name for himself as an ace pilot in the Zeon mobile suit forces during the Battle of Loum where his impressive combat abilities and blue MS-04 Zaku I earned him the nickname Blue Giant (青き巨星). Ramba Ral is also sometimes referred to as the "Great Blue Star","guerrilla guy ral" or the "Blue Nova". Ramba Ral stayed in space for the majority of the One Year War, however after the death of Garma Zabi during the pursuit of the Federation assault carrier White Base Ramba Ral is assigned to lead a Special Pursuit Force and is sent down to Earth on a Zanzibar mobile cruiser. Ramba Ral is ordered to avenge the death of Garma Zabi, and is given a new prototype ground-type mobile suit, the MS-07 Gouf, to do the job with. Soon after arriving on Earth, Ramba Ral decides to have a reconnaissance in force and attacks the White Base on an island in the North Pacific. Soon after gauging the attack strength of the warship and the Gundam, with guerrilla tactics, Ramba Ral retreats. The sheer power of Ramba Ral and his Gouf leave Gundam pilot Amuro Ray terrified. Traveling in a Gallop-Class Land Battleship, Ramba Ral continues to harass the White Base as it journeys across the vast deserts of Central Asia. During the second attack on the White Base, Ramba Ral's wingmate Akos is killed, and Cozun is captured when his Zaku II is disabled and taken back on board the White Base by Amuro Ray piloting the Guncannon. When Cozun escapes from White Base's brig he contacts Ramba Ral and Ramba again attacks the White Base in his Gouf to conduct a rescue. However, Cozun is killed before he can safely escape and Ramba Ral's Gouf is disabled by the Gundam, forcing Ramba Ral to retreat. Not soon afterwards Ramba Ral meets Amuro Ray again (but did not recognize Amuro), who had deserted the White Base with the Gundam after dispute with the captain Bright Noah, and Fraw Bow (who came to drag Amuro back) in a small cafe in the desert town of Sodon. After recognizing Fraw Bow as a Federation soldier, Ramba Ral decides to release her and assigns his men to follow her back to the White Base. When Ramba Ral's forces pinpoint s location they launch a surprise attack using guerrilla tactics. Amuro sees the Zeon mobilizing to launch their attack and he decides to come back with the Gundam for rescue. Amuro attacks Ramba Ral's Gouf and the two slash each other's cockpits open, the two of them realizing that they had just met each other in the cafe. Amuro is able to destroy the Gouf, but Ramba Ral is able to escape by leaping out of the gash in the cockpit hatch and swinging out of the way of the explosion on a grappling hook he had attached to the Gundam's arm. Following his defeat Ramba Ral is contacted by Dozle Zabi and told to contact M'Quve to receive support. However M'Quve refuses to supply Ramba Ral with the new Dom mobile suits he was instructed to give him. Realizing he is alone, Ramba decides that it is his duty as a soldier to do whatever he can to carry out his mission including the use of guerrilla tactics. While the Gallop and a Zaku II distract the White Base's mobile suits Ramba Ral and several of his soldiers attack the White Base in close-quarter hand-to-hand combat and successfully invade the ship. On board the ship Ramba Ral finds Sayla Mass and immediately recognizes her as Artesia Zum Deikun, and he tells her that he was a servant of her father. As Ramba Ral lets his guard down by talking he is shot by Ryu José, whom he also wounded. Wounded, Ramba Ral retreats into the White Bases secondary bridge and locks himself in. Captain Bright orders Amuro to destroy the secondary bridge, and Amuro tears a hole in the wall. Realizing he is trapped, Ramba Ral arms a grenade and leaps out of the hole, exploding in the Gundam's hand. Ramba Ral was killed in action on the 05th of November, Universal Century 0079.

Crowley Hamon
The elegant and attractive Crowley Hamon (クラウレ・ハモン) serves as an aide to Ramba Ral. Crowley is also Ramba Ral's lover and he affectionately refers to her as "Lady Hamon". Crowley Hamon mainly stays on the bridge of the Gallop and helps to coordinate Ramba Ral's attacks during battle. After Ramba Ral's death, Hamon decides to attack the White Base and comes close to destroying the Gundam. However, a wounded Ryu Jose crashes his Core Fighter into the Magella Top, killing them both.

Black Tri-Stars
Composing of three veteran pilots, Gaia (ガイア), Ortega (オルテガ), and Mash (マッシュ), the Black Tri-Stars (黒い三連星) are one of Zeon's most famous group of ace pilots after Char Aznable. Prior to the beginning of the series, the Black Tri-Stars were responsible for the capture of Federation General Revil using their "Jetstream Attack." Prior to the Earth Federation's assault on Odessa, the Black Tri-Stars were sent to Earth to reinforce Zeon's defenses. Despite being equipped with new MS-09 Dom mobile suits, each of the Black Tri-Stars were defeated by Amuro and the Gundam, but not before they managed to kill Matilda Ajan.

Degwin Sodo Zabi

Degwin Sodo Zabi (デギン・ソド・ザビ) was formally one of Zeon Zum Deikun's trusted allies, but apparently masterminded Deikun's death and used the murder of his son Sasro to take over Zeon and establish it into a Principality to unite his people and achieves their ideals. However, Garma's death caused a despondent Degwin to gradually lose power to Gihren, who orchestrated his father's death when he attempted a final plea with the Federation's General Revil for peace.

Gihren Zabi

Gihren Zabi (ギレン・ザビ) is the oldest son of Degwin and the commander-in-chief of Zeon's Armed Forces. When his father withdraws from his duties as sovereign after Garma's death, he assumes control over the Principality's governance and effectively becomes its ruler in all but name. Thereafter, Gihren proceeds to tighten the Zabi family's grip on power by indoctrinating Zeon's people into believing they are a master race and enacting policies designed to purge the population of all those deemed socially undesirable. Disgusted by his son's warping of Deikun's ideals, Degwin warns Gihren that he is following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler whose ambitions resulted in the destruction of himself and his country. After killing his father with the Solar Ray Cannon to prolong the war, Gihren is assassinated during the Battle of A Baoa Qu by Kycilia after admitting his act of patricide.

Sasro Zabi
Sasro Zabi, introduced in Gundam: The Origin, is the 2nd born son of Degwin, considered one of his family's prized members for being an adept manipulator of public opinion. This was shown by him using Deikun's death to stir anti-Federation propaganda among the Munzo citizens. Sasro was later killed in the same car explosion that scarred his young brother Dozle. This incident was apparently caused by Kycilia in retaliation for Sasro slapping her earlier for allowing Deikun's family to take refuge in the Ral household. Sasro's death ultimately enabled the Zabis' rise to power.

Dozle Zabi

Dozle Zabi (ドズル・ザビ) is Degwin's third born son and Zeon's Space Attack Force Commander, tasked during the One Year War to move fleets to and from various points in space to secure victory. Tall and burly, his face scarred from the explosion that killed his brother Sasro, Dozle casts a fearsome appearance at first glance but he is actually one of the more likable of the Zabi family, as he a good man to his troops and devoted to his wife Zena and their baby daughter Mineva Lao Zabi. Dozle is closest to his younger brother Garma and actually looks forward to the day when Garma becomes an admiral in his own right. Dozle dismisses Char Aznable from his division, blaming him (though not suspecting him of foul play) for incompetence in the battle that resulted in Garma's death. Dozle especially despises his sister Kycilia and this feeling is only increased when she takes Char under her wing.

Dozle is revered by his troops in the Space Attack Force for personally leading them in battle. He and his bodyguard and close friend Shin Matsunaga were known to stage frontline "inspections" in his custom MS-06F Zaku II mobile suit, which typically became impromptu raids on nearby Earth Federation forces. Dozle's command center is located in the heart of the asteroid Solomon (later renamed Konpei Island by the Federation), and it is here that Dozle made his last stand. Late in UC0079 the Federation launched an offensive against Solomon, utilizing their remaining Salamis and Magellan class vessels.

When the Federation's Public class assault ships successfully deployed their beam dispersion smoke, Dozle ordered the mandatory evacuation of all non-essential personnel. At the same time the Federation deployed its first Solar System array at Solomon, which destroyed anything attempting to leave.

Dozle mounted his own mobile armour, the MA-08 Big Zam, and flew out to buy time for the evacuees, and shortly thereafter was engaged by the Federation's Gundam mobile suit. During battle his Big Zam's I-Field generator is disabled by a kamikaze attack from a core fighter, and his Big Zam is finally disabled by the Gundam. Dozle then exits the Big Zam's cockpit and fires a machinegun at the Gundam, causing Amuro to temporarily be stricken with fear and doubt. He was caught in the subsequent explosion of the Big Zam and killed. His death marked the beginning of the end for Zeon forces in space.

Kycilia Zabi

Kycilia Zabi (キシリア・ザビ) is the only daughter of Degwin Sodo Zabi, who desires to be taken seriously, fiercely loyal to her people and subordinates yet an utterly merciless manipulator. Initially a security official in the Zeon homeland at the time of Zeon Zum Deikun's death, having her older brother Sasro Zabi killed for him slapping her over letting Deikun's children be sheltered by the Ral family, Kycilia is tasked with eliminating Deikun's family and loyalists. During the One War Year, placed in charge of Zeon's Mobile Suit Forces, Kycilia shows herself able to adapt to the changing technology while equally proficient in intelligence gathering, establishing numerous elite mobile suit units. She would later take Char Aznable under her wing, unaware that he is actually Casval Deikun, whom she assumed had been killed. During the Battle of A Baoa Qu, Kycilia took full command of Zeon after executing Gihren upon learning that he killed their father. Losing the support of Gihren's loyalists, Kycilia orders her remaining forces to fall back and ends up being killed when Char fires a rocket launcher at her through the window of her flagship Chimera, which the Federation warships destroyed moments after.

Garma Zabi

Garma Zabi (ガルマ・ザビ) is the youngest son of Degwin Sodo Zabi, commander of Zeon forces in North America, and academy classmate and friend of Char Aznable. Garma first appears after Char forces the Federation ship White Base off course during reentry into Earth's atmosphere and into the heart of Zeon-controlled territory. Eager to prove himself to his older sister Kycilia, Garma pursues White Base with the apparent full support of Char, unaware of Char's treachery. In a last attempt to prevent White Base from escaping, Garma personally leads another attack to capture the Federation ship. However, Char intentionally misdirects the Zeon forces, allowing White Base to attack Garma's Gaw air carrier from behind. Shocked by Char's treachery, Garma turns the Gaw around and attempts to ram White Base, only to fall short. Garma's death sends shock waves though the Zeon forces, especially his father, Degwin Sodo, and older brother, Dozle. During Garma's state funeral, his eldest brother Gihren uses Garma's death as propaganda to rally the Zeon forces to continue fighting.

M'Quve

M'Quve (マ・クベ) is a colonel for the Zeon ground forces under the command of Kycilia Zabi and supervises mining operations and supplies for the war effort. Decadent and amoral, M'quve fancies crystal vases, which he collects, in particular a Song Dynasty porcelain vase he acquired (which he intended to give to Kycilia Zabi as a present). He sees Char Aznable as somewhat of a rival and upstart. Upon destruction of his Odessa Base operating in Europe by the Earth Federation Forces, M'quve flees to space where he eventually meets the White Base and Amuro Ray's Gundam in battle at Texas Colony. There, M'quve pilots a melee-customized mobile suit, a prototype YMS-15 Gyan, and faces Amuro personally, only to be defeated and killed.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: List of Mobile Suit Gundam characters


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sindhanur

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was - kept -SimonP 03:27, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

Sindhanur
an unneccessary one-line definition which doesn't make sense UkPaolo 15:51, 30 May 2005 (UTC) keep UkPaolo 22:08, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I fixed it up a bit, keep real place. Kappa 21:31, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep real place, thanks, Kappa, tho I can understand UkPaolo's confusion. RickK 21:56, May 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * nice work, Kappa! i really thought this article wasn't going anywhere, but you've fixed it well. keep. UkPaolo 22:08, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Keep and expand. Well done Kappa. Capitalistroadster 00:59, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. utcursch | talk 13:32, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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Nightingale (band)

Nightingale is a Swedish rock band from Örebro.

History
Nightingale began in 1995 as a solo project of Dan Swanö, designed to explore his brief fascination with more of a cleanly-sung rock style evident on Edge of Sanity tracks such as "Sacrificed". The first album The Breathing Shadow was recorded and mastered by Swanö alone in the space of a week at his home Unisound studio, and has been described by some as a tribute to goth rock band The Sisters of Mercy. The second album The Closing Chronicles was recorded in April 1996 with his brother Dag acting as producer and contributing some guitar parts. Unlike the first album, it is somewhat influenced by progressive rock and heavy metal, and continues the conceptual storyline that began in The Breathing Shadow to the logical conclusion of the central characters' death, as it was intended to be the last Nightingale album.

After this the band went on semi-hiatus, playing a couple of live concerts in small venues around Örebro with future permanent band member Erik Oskarsson on bass and Ari Halinoja playing the drums. The second concert, in October 1998 is remarkable because it was one of the few times Edge of Sanity songs were performed live by Swanö, the band adding two lighter tracks to bulk out their set (Swanö scarcely performed live with Edge of Sanity, citing his inability to sustain death metal vocals for long enough).

The band returned to Unisound in April 1999 to expand upon a lost demo of the track "I Return" recorded by Dan and Dag in September 1998. The album "I" from 2000 is a prequel to the first two albums, half composed by Dan and half by Dag, several of the tracks, such as "Alonely" and "Dead or Alive" being recycled by Dag from previously abandoned projects and given new lyrics (the originals being both written in Swedish and outside the conceptual storyline). For the recording of "Alive Again" in May 2002 (a sequel to the original Breathing Shadow Trilogy of "I", "The Breathing Shadow" and "The Closing Chronicles") the band was filled out with Tom Björn on drums and Erik Oskarsson returning as a permanent member. This record received the most critical acclaim yet upon its release in February 2003, partly owing to the increased exposure caused by their signing of a distribution deal with American label The End Records. They played a series of live shows before travelling to Västerås in June 2004 to record Invisible, which is the band's first departure from their conceptual storyline approach, dealing with a wide array of topics from love to history. Before going on their first major tour, the band re-recorded a set of tracks for a best-of album, Nightfall Overture, containing songs from their first four conceptual albums, an Edge of Sanity track and one new Nightingale song.

In 2006 the band concluded the second and last day of the international progressive rock festival, InProg 2006.

Later that year Dag stated on his website that he will no longer be using his alias Tom Nouga; In Sep-06 I decided to stop using the name Tom Nouga and play under my real name.

The band's sixth album White Darkness was released 4 June 2007.

On October 19, 2014, Nightingale released their seventh studio album entitled Retribution, a follow-up to 2007's White Darkness through the band's new worldwide label InsideOut Music on November 10, 2014 in Europe and January 25, 2015 in North America.

Members

 * Dan Swanö – vocals, guitars, keyboards (1994–present) (see entry for list of other projects)
 * Dag Swanö (Tom Nouga) – guitars, keyboards, bass (1996–present) (Also in: Pan.Thy.Monium)
 * Tom Björn – drums (2000–present) (Also in: Memory Garden, Memento Mori)
 * Erik Oskarsson – bass, vocals (2000–present) (Also in Godsend)

Discography

 * 1995 - The Breathing Shadow
 * 1996 - The Closing Chronicles
 * 2000 - I
 * 2003 - Alive Again
 * 2004 - Invisible
 * 2005 - Nightfall Overture (Re-recorded versions of previously released songs)
 * 2007 - White Darkness
 * 2014 - Retribution
 * 2017 - Rock Hard Live (Live album)

title: Nightingale (band)


text: User talk:80.189.219.66

title: User talk:80.189.219.66


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Pauline Fowler

Pauline Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. She was played by actress Wendy Richard between the first episode on 19 February 1985 and 25 December 2006. Pauline was created by scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer Julia Smith as one of EastEnders' original characters. She made her debut in the soap's first episode on 19 February 1985, and remained for twenty-one years and ten months, making her the second-longest-running original character to appear continuously, surpassed only by her nephew Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). Since then, she has been surpassed by Letitia Dean who plays Sharon Watts.

Pauline is a member of the Beale family. Her storylines focus on drudgery, money worries, and family troubles. The matriarchal stalwart of the fictional London community of Albert Square, she is at first portrayed as a loving, doting, very family-oriented mother. In later years, however, she becomes a more stoic, opinionated battle-axe who alienates her relatives through overbearing interference. Pauline is married to the downtrodden Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher); when she finds out he had a one-night stand with Christine Hewitt (Elizabeth Power), she hits him with a frying pan. Their marriage remains rocky until his death in 1996. She is used for comedic purposes in scenes with her launderette colleague Dot Cotton (June Brown), and scriptwriters included many feuds in her narrative, most notably with her daughter-in-law, Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), a family friend who got her daughter Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) pregnant at 16. A famous episode in 1986 which includes Pauline discovering that Den is the father of Michelle's baby, drew over 30 million viewers, and was listed at number 36 in The Times' 1998 list of "Top 100 cult moments in Film". Richard announced Pauline's retirement from the serial in July 2006, and the character was killed off in a "whodunnit?" murder storyline, with Richard making her final appearance on 25 December 2006.

Pauline was a staple in the UK press during her time in EastEnders, representative of the symbiosis between Britain's soaps and tabloid newspapers. Widely-read tabloids such as The Sun and Daily Mirror, would routinely publish articles about forthcoming developments in Pauline's storylines. Critical opinion on the character differs. She has been described as a "legend" and a television icon, but was also voted the 35th "most annoying person of 2006" (being the only fictional character to appear on the list). The character is well-known even outside of the show's viewer-base, and away from the on-screen serial, Pauline has been the subject of television documentaries, behind-the-scenes books, tie-in novels, and comedy sketch shows.

Background
Pauline Fowler is one of the original 23 characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland (1940–2007) and Julia Smith (1927–1997). Holland had drawn on his own London background for inspiration, naming three of the original characters after his own relatives, specifically his aunt Lou and her children, Holland's cousins, fraternal twins Pete and Pauline. This family setup of a woman named Lou Beale, with twin children Pete and Pauline, was recreated on-screen as the first family of EastEnders, the Beales and Fowlers.

Pauline's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appears in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story.

"Pete's twin sister. Forty, and a chip off the Lou Beale block. Plucky, and determined to battle through whatever the odds. A warm, practical, unsophisticated woman: you stand by your man, do your duty, fight for your kids and have a roast for Sunday dinner ... She's also pregnant ... She actually remembers her dad [Albert] saying "Two things we don't discuss in this house are religion and politics". She also remembers her dad smoked a pipe, and wishes her husband did too. She loved her dad very much ... Maybe she didn't go into her marriage with quite the right spirit? She was due to be chief bridesmaid at her sister's wedding but she'd got the flu and was confined to bed. Arthur, someone she'd known from school, was given permission to visit the invalid upstairs. He found himself proposing to her. Years later he said "It was to cheer her up really." And Pauline found herself accepting too ... She's very fond of her twin brother, Pete (and knows that he's mum's favourite). She's very conventional, and the salt of the earth. Jolly, rounded, someone you can get your arms round. She doesn't trust skinny people."

Casting
From the beginning, Smith considered the role ideal for Wendy Richard, with whom she had worked on the 1960s BBC soap, The Newcomers; Holland and Smith decided to approach her about the role, even though their casting policy was not to use "stars"—Richard was already well known in the UK for playing glamorous roles, such as Shirley Brahms in the successful sitcom Are You Being Served? At their first meeting, Tony Holland informed Richard that they were planning a programme that would not "duck social issues but would be a hard-hitting drama including teenage pregnancy, drugs, racial conflict, prostitution, rape, mental illness, homosexuality, alcoholism, and muggings among its subjects." In order to carry such controversial storylines, Richard was told that "powerful characters to whom things just naturally happened" had been invented, and two families, the Fowlers and the Beales, were to form the core of the soap's narrative. In her autobiography, Richard states, "If I accepted, my character was to be Pauline Fowler. A middle-aged mother of two teenagers, with a late baby on the way, Pauline worked part-time at the launderette, voted Labour and supported Arsenal. She was married to Arthur, who was out of work and was really a bit of a failure, not much good at anything in life." Richard thought it sounded like a challenging role.

There were initial fears that Richard's glamorous image would not work for the character and Smith also feared that Richard would be apprehensive about playing Pauline, who would be anything but glamorous, but these fears were swept aside when Richard announced that she was sick of glamour and wanted to play her own age. Richard has commented, "although it would be such a huge transformation of my screen image, it was after all my twenty-fifth year in showbusiness, and I'd realised that I couldn't go on playing dolly birds forever ... I knew right away I would be mad to turn down the part of Pauline."

After she accepted the role, Richard was told by Julia Smith that she would have to change her appearance, to make it more in keeping with Pauline's unglamorous lifestyle. This included having her hair cut. Richard commented on this: "I was very proud of my long hair, which had taken me years to grow. I hadn't had it cut short for nineteen years but reluctantly, I agreed ... I cried my eyes out for the rest of the day after that traumatic hair cut." From September 1984, Richard was involved in pre-production of the series, covering every angle, from hair, costume design and make-up to organising the set interior of her character's screen house. Richard has said that Pauline had been given extensive biographical detail, including minute specifics, such as her fictional time of her birth: "It was vital that we should get to know our own characters intimately and so the cast initially sat together in family groups to learn our lines and bond with our 'relations' ... it was essential to develop the rapport that families, who'd been together for years, would naturally have." Richard's casting was considered to be "a giant leap of faith" by co-creators Holland and Smith, but one that ultimately "landed on its feet", because Pauline went on to be one of the longest running characters in EastEnders' history, remaining with the show for nearly twenty-two years.

Lineage and personality
The character of Pauline was a cornerstone of EastEnders; the lynchpin of the Fowler/Beale family around whom the soap was originally structured. At the beginning of the serial in 1985, Pauline was a 40-year-old married mother with two teenage children, Mark and Michelle, and another child on the way. The fictional history of her younger years has been told via behind-the-scenes books such as EastEnders: The Inside Story, and the second tie-in novel by Hugh Miller, Swings and Roundabouts, which explains that Pauline was born and raised at 45 Albert Square, where she lived for her entire life. She married Arthur Fowler in 1965, raising her own children in the same house where she grew up.

Whereas most of the other female characters in EastEnders were portrayed in a somewhat more glamorous working-class way, Pauline Fowler was the exception to the rule, being the sole character to represent the "homely and domestic" side of the Beale family. As the serial progressed, the character altered from her original outline. Instead of being the jolly, warm character she was during the show's early years, she became a sombre battle-axe, hardened by a life of misery in Albert Square. Other characters refer to her as "Fowler the growler", and in the Evening Gazette she was described as "the Boadicea of battle-axes." The initial change in her demeanour is traced back to the death of her mother, Lou Beale (Anna Wing), a fierce dowager, who ruled over her family with a "rod of iron". Following Lou's screen funeral in July 1988, Pauline retorts, "Shut up Arthur Fowler, no one interrupts Pauline Beale when she's in full flow", a line that was used similarly by Lou in the episode that preceded her own death. This parallel symbolised the transference of the family's matriarchal role from Lou to Pauline. Wendy Richard indicated that both she and show creator Julia Smith had always intended for Pauline to become like her mother, and former EastEnders executive producer John Yorke has commented on the importance of the lineage between the two characters: "[Pauline] endures, stoically and heroically, whatever life may throw at her, just as her mother did before her. This sense of lineage is vitally important, too. Pauline has been in the show since its start and was handed the role of matriarch on Lou Beale's death."

Early storylines
In the first episode, it is revealed that Pauline, aged 40, is pregnant with her third child. The character's pregnancy quickly became a prominent storyline within the series. Pauline, against her mother's opposition, is determined to keep the baby. The storyline was used to spread a public message on the increased risk of genetic defects in late pregnancies, with Pauline undergoing amniocentesis tests. The storyline culminates with the birth of the serial's first baby, Martin, in July 1985.

Pauline's early storylines concentrate on family and money troubles: coping with her husband Arthur's redundancy, mental breakdown and imprisonment; eldest son Mark's delinquency; and daughter Michelle's teenage pregnancy.

In 1989, the character was used to highlight another important gynaecological health issue, fibroids. The storyline sees Pauline ignoring health problems, such as chronic fatigue, and using homoeopathic preparations rather than seeking medical assistance. Her fibroids are discovered by chance, when the character Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) knocks her down in his Austin Mini. In the 1989 Boxing Day episode, Pauline spends time in hospital, recovering from a necessary hysterectomy. Wendy Richard has since revealed that the storyline had originally been scripted differently. Before the outcome of Pauline's illness was screened, producers had decided that the character was to be killed off with cancer. This was a decision that had been made by the show's boss, Mike Gibbon, to refresh the format by replacing some of the serial's older characters. The scriptwriters went as far as giving Pauline a mystery illness. The newly appointed executive producer, Michael Ferguson, decided to scrap the original storyline, believing that Pauline, as one of the soap's original characters, was too valuable an asset to lose. The storyline was rewritten and the character was given a different gynaecological ailment that was treatable.

Marriage to Arthur Fowler
Pauline's marriage to the luckless Arthur is central to her character, remaining one of her defining traits even after his death in 1996. The dynamics of the relationship were clear from the beginning of the programme, with Pauline depicted as the matriarchal force that holds the Fowler family together, while Arthur is depicted as weak, emotionally unstable and easily dominated by the stronger females of his family. Writer Jacquetta May, who once played Rachel Kominski in the programme, has commented that "[Pauline and Arthur] represented the matriarchal relationship of strong woman/weak man ... Arthur, only sporadically employed and disabled by a breakdown, often behaved like a little boy, while Pauline had to make the decisions and keep the family functioning in the face of poverty and unemployment, teenage pregnancy and depression." Pauline and Arthur were generally seen as the most stable couple in the show, so Arthur's affair with Christine Hewitt (Lizzie Power) came as a shock to viewers. The storyline was long-running, beginning early in 1992 with the introduction of lonely divorcee Christine, who employs Arthur to tend to her garden. A romance between Arthur and Christine steadily develops throughout the year, facilitated by Pauline's lengthy absence; she is called abroad to tend to her crippled brother Kenny in early June, and she does not return until late September (in reality, Wendy Richard had to be temporarily written out of EastEnders to allow her to act in Grace and Favour). The build-up to the affair contains many twists and turns, starting with Arthur's rebuff of Christine's advances, then a confrontation between Pauline and Christine, which convinces Pauline of Arthur's innocence and leaves her feeling "strangely sorry for the pathetic, lonely figure, who obviously drank too much". The episode in which Arthur finally gives into temptation and sleeps with Christine aired on Christmas Eve 1992.

The storyline continued throughout 1993 as Christine makes greater demands on Arthur, threatening to tell Pauline about their affair unless he does so himself. In September 1993, the situation finally reaches a climax on-screen. The scriptwriters had many conferences about ways in which Pauline would find out about the affair; "should she work it out herself or should some third party tell her the truth?" In the end it was felt that Arthur should tell her himself, and when he does, Pauline becomes violent, throwing an ashtray and a television at Arthur during the revelation - and, most memorably, hitting him in the face with a frying pan. Although the audience had witnessed Pauline and Arthur rowing many times, this was something different, "an act of betrayal on a massive scale." Series production manager Rona McKendrick commented: "It was one of the few times when you saw Pauline really, really let rip ... you really felt the anger, understood the anger and realised why she went as far as she did." This episode (written by Tony McHale and directed by Keith Boak) was chosen by writer Colin Brake as the episode of the year in EastEnders: The First Ten Years and is described by Wendy Richard as "Pauline's crowning moment." For a while it seems that EastEnders' "most solid" marriage is over, but Arthur spends the rest of 1993 trying to convince Pauline that it is worth saving and they eventually reconcile. However, more tragedy follows, when Arthur is framed by a conman, Willy Roper (dubbed "Wicked Willy" by the British press), and wrongfully imprisoned for embezzlement in 1995. The storyline captured the public's imagination and a nationwide "Free Arthur Fowler" campaign was launched. "Arthur Fowler Is Innocent" T-shirts were produced and a single was even released in the UK Singles Chart promoting the campaign.

Arthur's imprisonment was a precursor to the final exit of actor Bill Treacher, who decided to leave EastEnders after 11 years playing Arthur. While Arthur goes to pieces in prison, Pauline is heavily embroiled in the storyline pertaining to his eventual release. For several months viewers witnessed Willy attempt to woo Pauline, but she eventually uncovers his deception and then resorts to uncharacteristic seduction to gain his confession. A critic for the Sunday Mirror commented, "Pauline Fowler deserves a Golden Cardie Award for her performance in EastEnders. The way which she extracted a confession from Willy Roper over the money he stole was nothing short of brilliant." Arthur is exonerated, but his joyful reunion with Pauline is cut short when he dies of a brain haemorrhage shortly after his release. His death ends an 11-year screen marriage, the longest run of any marriage in the serial.

Importance of family
Pauline remains a family-oriented character throughout the course of the show. A "fiercely loyal, but overbearing mother"; sheltering and taking on the major responsibilities of her children and frequently stressing the importance of family. She is portrayed as a traditionalist, with strict rules and beliefs—the first to criticise, but also the first to defend her children, often interfering in their issues and causing rifts in their relationships. The quintessential matriarch, she has also been compared with Queen Elizabeth, with the storylines in the fictional Albert Square, mirroring the troubles of England as a whole. In Monarchies: What Are Kings and Queens For, the author points out similarities between the matriarchal nature of Pauline's character, and that of the Queen. "Both exhibit a rich mix of suffering and duty. Pauline has tried to bring up her family as best she can, even though it hasn't always been easy.  Her offspring have caused her nothing but trials and tribulations; her husband has been wayward at times and caused her several eyebrow-raising moments.  But Pauline has steadfastly carried on ..."

Early storylines between Pauline and her two teenage children, Mark and Michelle, show her to be a doting mother, forgiving of Mark's wayward behaviour, and supportive when Michelle decides to become a teenage mum. Pauline is devoted to her twin brother Pete, dutiful to her mother Lou, allegiant to her husband Arthur, and a shoulder for her nephew, Ian, to cry on. Wendy Richard commented in 1990, "It's important for her to keep the family together. That's why when her problem son Mark suddenly came home [in 1990], it was like her winning the pools ... She had to take a lot of shocks from Michelle and I think she coped remarkably well."

As the serial progressed, Pauline contends with a plethora of family upsets, which include many deaths—her mother Lou in 1988, brother Pete in 1993 and husband Arthur in 1996—as well as her elder son Mark's fatal battle with HIV. After a year long build-up, Mark is shown to reveal his HIV status to his stunned and devastated parents in an episode that aired on Boxing Day 1991, attracting 19 million viewers. Wendy Richard has given her interpretation of Pauline's reaction to Mark's news: "To say she was shell-shocked was an understatement and, not knowing enough about HIV, she and Arthur were worrying that their eldest son might die from AIDS at any moment." The HIV plot had many ramifications for the character of Pauline, as she struggles to come to terms with her son's condition. It was also instrumental in raising public awareness about the illness, which was still the subject of much ignorance when EastEnders tackled it in 1991. When the storyline initially aired, more people went for a HIV test in Britain than at any other time. Wendy Richard commented: "The storyline with Mark Fowler, when he announced he was HIV positive, was really well done. People have to be aware that HIV and AIDS are not exactly the same thing. The Minister of Health who was in power at that time wrote a letter complimenting us for the way that we had put the information across."

The HIV storyline came to an end on-screen in 2003, when executive producer Louise Berridge decided to axe Mark Fowler. In the serial, Mark discovers his HIV medication is failing, but instead of allowing Pauline to witness his deterioration, he leaves to spend the remainder of his life travelling. Richard has classed Mark's exit as her most difficult storyline, commenting: "I was so genuinely upset that Todd Carty, who played Mark, was going I could barely get my lines out for want of crying—but everybody said I acted it well. It was, I think, ten per cent acting and 90 per cent me crying my eyes out because I was being selfish and didn't want Todd to go." Mark, who had appeared intermittently for 18 years, was eventually killed off-screen in 2004, dying of an AIDS-related illness.

In the latter years of her time in the soap, Pauline changes from a caring mother into a more inflexible battle-axe. Pauline's relationship with Martin is often shown to be strained by Pauline's refusal to release control over his life. Though initially a teenage delinquent, following Mark's death in 2004, Martin becomes Pauline's "dutiful son", forced to put his mother's wishes above those of his wife—a recurring theme within the serial. Eventually, this causes a rift between the two characters. When Martin goes against his mother's wishes in 2006 and rekindles a romance with his adulterous ex-wife Sonia, Pauline cuts him out of her life. Television personality Paul O'Grady addressed Pauline's refusal to "share her son like a normal mother", commenting, "she's suspicious of anybody that comes into the family who wants to take her son away from her. She has already lost one son; she has lost her husband, so she's hanging onto the last [son] like a mother tiger with her cub."

Friends and enemies
The character's narrative also included various feuds, most notably with the soap's lothario Den Watts, a family-friend who gets Pauline's daughter Michelle pregnant at the age of 16. EastEnders pulled in the biggest television audience of the 1980s when over 30 million people watched the 1986 Christmas Day episode in which Pauline discovers that Den is the father of her granddaughter, Vicki. Wendy Richard has commented on the hostility between the characters "once Pauline realised that Dennis was Vicki's father, she was out to get him one way or another" and actor Leslie Grantham, who played Den, added "from then on it was out and out war, which was great!" An array of confrontations between Den and Pauline occur, as she tries to force him to leave Walford and keep him away from her family. The feud appears to end in 1989 when the character Den is shot and presumed dead, but it is ignited once again in 2003 when Den is re-introduced, 14 years after he supposedly died. 2005 saw Den killed off for the final time, and although Pauline is not directly responsible for killing him, the item used to bludgeon him to death turns out to be her dog-shaped iron doorstop, which has been described as "a nice touch of pathos".

A large proportion of the character's scenes take place on the set of Walford's launderette, where Pauline works as an assistant for almost the entire duration of her time in EastEnders. Here, Pauline is frequently featured with another long-running protagonist, fellow launderette colleague, Dot Cotton. The two characters share one of the soap's most enduring screen friendships and their scenes together are often used to provide humour. Particular emphasis is placed on their differences, which lead to numerous petty squabbles and in 2004 sees them "buried alive" underneath a collapsed fairground ride, in the midst of a cake-selling war. However, Pauline and Dot are most frequently shown gossiping, reminiscing about the past, or sharing their woes in the launderette. The duo has been described by television personality Paul O'Grady as a "fabulous double-act": "Dot's probably Pauline's one and only confidant. Pauline eventually will break down and tell Dot things that she'd never tell anybody else."

Pauline is shown to be particularly hostile to the various female characters that feature in her sons' lives, and she epitomises the archetypal "mother-in-law from hell". One of Pauline's most notable feuds is with her youngest son Martin's wife, Sonia. Animosity between the characters begins in 2000, when Sonia gives birth to Pauline's grandchild and decides to give the baby Chloe (later renamed Rebecca) up for adoption. In the storyline, Pauline tries unsuccessfully to fight for custody, leading Sonia to retort "YOU want to bring up Chloe? You couldn't bring up phlegm!" The feuding over Chloe is revisited in storylines throughout 2005 and 2006, when first Pauline is shown to visit her adopted granddaughter against Sonia and Martin's wishes, and then, following Sonia's affair with Naomi Julien, Pauline refuses to give Sonia access to the child after Martin regains custody. Critic for The Guardian, Grace Dent, commented "At one point, you couldn't move around Walford for hitmen and gangsters, but now they've all been written out ... leaving Pauline Fowler to reign the square like sodding Pablo Escobar in a sky-blue tabard and ski-pants, decreeing who can see their own kids, who can drink where and what everyone's eating in the cafe so as they won't spoil their teas. If I was Sonia, I'd have ransacked the hospital's dangerous drugs box by now and given that old crone a renal meltdown." Various rows, slaps and insults were featured between the characters, caused by Pauline's continuous interference in Sonia's relationships with Martin and Rebecca. As Martin began to cede, allowing Sonia access to their daughter, Pauline was shown to concoct ever more elaborate ways to obstruct Sonia's involvement.

During her latter years in EastEnders, Pauline is rarely without her Cairn Terrier, Betty. The dog is a stray taken in by the Fowler family in 2004, who quickly becomes Pauline's inseparable sidekick. Wendy Richard has since revealed that it was her decision for Pauline to own a Cairn: "When EastEnders asked if Pauline should have a dog I said it had to be a Cairn Terrier—and Betty joined us! She's wonderful, she loves me and I love her." In the on-screen story, the dog is named after Pauline's aunt Betty, but in reality, Wendy Richard named her after Mollie Sugden's fictional character Betty Slocombe, who appeared along with Richard's Shirley Brahms in the sitcom, Are You Being Served?

Second marriage
Several eligible bachelors are shown to express their interest in Pauline over the years, including the characters Derek Taylor in 1987, Danny Taurus in 1993, Jeff Healy (who proposes) in 1999, Eddie Skinner in 2000, and Terry Raymond, with whom she goes on a blind date in 2001. However, the character remains staunchly faithful to her late husband's memory, refusing to let the relationships progress beyond companionship. In 2001 Derek Harkinson (Ian Lavender) is introduced, an old school friend of Pauline's. Initial scripts indicated that Derek was being groomed as a romantic interest for Pauline, which she is shown to welcome. However, the storyline takes a twist when he reveals, to her shock, that he is gay. 2002 sees Derek move in with the Fowler family, unconventionally settling into the show as a replacement father figure for Mark and Martin and as Pauline's best friend.

In 2005, Pauline embarks on a romance with a new character, Joe Macer (Ray Brooks), whom she meets at salsa classes. A relationship develops, and despite her initial trepidation, Pauline remarries in 2006, after almost a decade alone. Pauline's marriage to Joe was an attempt to give the character a "new lease of life", and her wedding day was screened to coincide with EastEnders' 21st anniversary. Richard was openly opposed to her character remarrying, but she was eventually convinced by the executive producer and battled, successfully, for Pauline to keep the "Fowler" surname. However, in July 2006, Wendy Richard announced that she was leaving EastEnders. Richard felt that she did not have the same chemistry with Ray Brooks, who played Joe, as she did with Bill Treacher, who played Arthur. She refuted producers' opinions that Pauline and Joe "looked good together" and felt that she and Brooks had to work very hard to turn them into a "realistic-looking couple."

Within the storyline, just two months after the wedding, Pauline's marriage is shown to sour after she discovers Joe's criminal past. Their relationship steadily deteriorates throughout the year, and in December 2006 Pauline ends the marriage—removing her wedding ring and informing Joe that he "was half the man that Arthur had been, that she had never really loved him and that their sex life was a sham." The resulting row sees Joe insult Pauline's family—suggesting that her "perfect marriage" with Arthur was "nothing but a fantasy" and branding Mark "diseased", Michelle a "scrubber" and Arthur a "con"—to which Pauline responds by smashing a plate over his head. Wendy Richard commented, "It was not just the memory of Arthur that stopped the marriage to Joe being a success. He was proven to be a weak and untruthful man. That is what caused the marriage to be a non-starter. Pauline was not mean to Joe, he used her ... and lied to her."

Deception, reclusiveness and death
Viewers saw the slow build-up to Pauline's climactic exit throughout the latter part of 2006. The character's bitter decline involves depression, pretending to have a brain tumour to scupper the revived relationship between her son Martin and his ex-wife Sonia, marital breakdown, and finally ostracism after Martin and the rest of Albert Square discover her lie. Having successfully alienated everyone around her, Pauline plans to go to America to join her daughter. Wendy Richard commented on the reasons behind Pauline's actions: "she cannot forgive. For anyone to hurt a member of her family so badly is incomprehensible to Pauline. She is a good, but unforgiving woman. Sonia is more than just a thorn in Pauline's side. She is angry because she feels Martin has let her down in returning to Sonia. She feels he could have discussed it with her more and talked her round for the sake of Rebecca. Pauline will blame her decision to leave on Sonia—another way of punishing Martin. Even though she is really hurting over leaving Rebecca, Pauline is determined to go. She realised she never really loved Joe, he has lied to her too many times ... Although I know Pauline better than anyone, even I cannot fathom out why she made up the brain tumour story."

The character was killed off in a dramatic storyline, which aired on Christmas Day 2006 and was watched by an estimated 10.7 million viewers. The episode sees Sonia denouncing Pauline as "sick" for not wanting to share her son with the woman he loved, to which Pauline retorts, "I'll tell you what's sick. You. Daughter of a scrubber, lesbian, under-age mother who gave away her own baby." The row culminates with Sonia slapping Pauline, causing her to fall to the floor and break the Fowler fruit bowl—"the enduring symbol of her family, which smashed, significantly, into smithereens." Though Pauline resolves to stay and reunite with her family in the end, she does not get the chance, as she collapses and dies in the middle of Albert Square, seemingly due to her fall.

The Christmas Day episodes, written by Simon Ashdown, drew on the show's early history to mark the occasion of Pauline's exit, which was particularly emphasised by the use of flashback vocal snippets of several members of Pauline's deceased family. The critic for The Times, Tim Teeman, commented that "Wendy Richard as Pauline had the air of the departing diva, queen of all she had loved, lost and laid waste to, her face set in a silent snarl." In addition, her parting scene with the other EastEnders long-serving "grand dame" Dot Cotton (played by June Brown) has also been praised, with Teeman commenting: "The really choking scene came in the launderette between Pauline and Dot ... Here the two grand dames had worked, bitched and consoled for years. Richard and the wonderful June Brown played their final encounter as intensely as the characters deserved."

Richard herself has been less complimentary about her alter ego's departure. She has spoken of her disappointment regarding Pauline's "changing character" and "depressing final storyline". In an interview with the Biography Channel she explained: "I did say, promise me you won't make Pauline nasty before she goes, and unfortunately they did ... I wasn't too happy with the way it was done. They were changing Pauline's character ... Pauline would never have remarried. She would have remained a widow, sitting in that chair in the corner. That's what [show creator] Julia Smith wanted, and that's what I felt was right, so I resigned ... I think it's a shame because the Fowlers have gone completely now ... There was so much history with that family."

As a final tribute to Pauline and Wendy Richard, the BBC aired a special television programme, EastEnders Revealed: Goodbye Pauline, which provided an emotional look back at Pauline's pivotal storylines during her time in Walford. It also reunited Wendy Richard with prior cast-mates Todd Carty and James Alexandrou (Mark and Martin respectively), and featured character commentary and tributes from television critics and EastEnders actors such as Anna Wing and Pam St. Clement (Lou and Pat). During the programme—which aired on New Year's Day, 2007—Wendy Richard reflected upon how "proud" she was of her character, commenting: "Pauline had everything in life thrown at her and I think she coped with it very well. It showed how people deal with their problems ... She wasn't always grumpy ... she did have lots of laughs, but sadly people don't seem to remember that, which is a shame ... they still harp on about her wearing her cardigans and Pauline stopped wearing cardigans three years after EastEnders started. She is a good woman, she's a kind woman, a loving woman and all she ever thought about was her family. That was the most important thing in her life."

The storyline continued into 2007, as first Pauline's funeral is interrupted by the police in order to perform an autopsy on her body, and then Pauline's nemesis Sonia is arrested for the murder. It is later revealed that the killing blow had actually come from Pauline's husband Joe, who breaks down and confesses to Dot that he had rowed with Pauline on Christmas Day (off-screen) and, in a fury, struck her across the head with a frying pan, causing a brain haemorrhage that claimed her life. The plot's eventual climax in February 2007 led to the exits of several established characters connected with Pauline. This included Martin, Sonia, and Joe, who is dramatically killed off after confessing to Pauline's murder, by falling out of the Fowlers' first floor window while trying to apprehend a hysterical Dot. Pauline is cremated, and her ashes buried at Arthur's graveside, by Dot, in an episode that aired in June 2007.

Reception
At the time of her departure from the serial, Pauline was the second-longest running character to feature in EastEnders and one of only two original characters to remain in the show for almost 22 years. Her baggy woolly cardigan and long-suffering nature have led to her being labelled as a soap institution, a "soap legend" and a "television icon". Actress Wendy Richard was awarded an Order of the British Empire MBE medal in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, and when the Queen visited the set of EastEnders in 2001, Wendy Richard was the first actress introduced, who then accompanied her and Prince Philip on their tour of the set.

Despite being popular with many, the character of Pauline has also garnered much criticism over the years. Persistent criticism has been given to the character's dowdy attire, particularly the perception that she rarely wears anything but a baggy cardigan; a claim that Wendy Richard herself categorically disputes. In addition, Pauline has also received much criticism for her miserable demeanour—"a face like a month of wet weekends" and "a voice that could curdle milk." She has been described as the "Wicked Witch of Walford" and "a character who became a byword for downtrodden haggery."

Lucy Mangan, the culture critic from The Guardian newspaper, summed up the character: "Pauline Fowler is surely one of the oddest soap creations ever. She is a character without humour, charisma or indeed any redeeming features who became progressively, unrelentingly miserable ... She was presumably intended to be the anchoring force for EastEnders, but because of the writers' unprecedented decision to break with traditional narrative rules and give her not a single redeeming feature, she became more of a sucking chest wound than the heart of the show." This opinion is perhaps shared by a proportion of viewers, as Pauline was voted the 35th most annoying person of 2006 in a BBC Three poll, being the only fictional character to appear on the list. In a Radio Times poll of over 5,000 people in 2004, 13% chose Pauline Fowler as the soap character they would most like to see retired. She came third in the poll, behind EastEnders' Den Watts (17%) and Coronation Street's Ken Barlow (15%).

Although it had been suggested that Pauline's presence in EastEnders was largely peripheral for some time, the news of her departure in 2006 was met with dismay by fans and soap journalists alike. In a report for BBC News, one viewer commented "it's so sad, because I've watched her for 20 years. She's such a large character", and another said "If she goes then I think EastEnders is finished." BBC controller of continuing drama, John Yorke, commented Richard "occupies a huge place in people's hearts", and executive producer Kate Harwood said, "For many years Wendy simply was EastEnders for the audience and Pauline's indomitable nature typified the grit and fight that embodies the EastEnders' spirit ... We thank her for everything she has done for the show."

Inside Soap editor, Steven Murphy, said that the fact Pauline has been such an "enduring staple" will make it hard for fans to cope with her departure. "It's huge in soap terms ... She's a character people love to hate—you just assumed she would be there forever." When addressing the repercussions that Pauline's exit would have on the soap, Murphy had this to say: "characters like Pauline are like glue, because they're connected to so many other characters and they can help hold stories together. In terms of that [EastEnders] has very few of those now." Jonathan Hughes, editor of All About Soap magazine, added "[Pauline's] an absolute legend ... You can't imagine the show without her ... People will miss her because she's been such an important part of EastEnders for so many years." However, not all viewers were sorry to hear of the character's retirement, with one commenting "How can you have someone like Pauline Fowler on the television for 21 years? It's the best thing that's ever happened to television [getting rid of her]. Kill her off? I would have blown her up years ago".

Pauline's exit in December 2006 was described by The Times critic, Tim Teeman, as a landmark episode and a "significant sayonara". He described scenes between Pauline and Dot as "the most moving in a soap this year" and added that "it was a delight to finally alight on an episode ... that was so satisfying." Conversely, Pauline's exit was described as a "mess" by Kevin O'Sullivan, critic of the Sunday Mirror newspaper. He branded the character's final scene unconvincing and badly acted, commenting: "the appropriately feeble scene brought down the curtain on 20 terrible years of Wendy Richard's low-quality performances. We shall not see her like again. If we're lucky! ... I'm certain millions didn't tune in to say farewell to sour-faced Pauline. No, they were just checking to make sure she was really dead."

To mark Pauline's 22-year reign in EastEnders, Wendy Richard was awarded with a 'Lifetime Achievement' award at the British Soap Awards in May 2007. The award was presented by Todd Carty, who played her on-screen son Mark. Carty described Richard as the "heart and soul of EastEnders" and hailed her as an inspiration to everyone in the EastEnders cast. Richard was moved to tears when she collected the award.

In popular culture and other media
When the series was launching in 1985, since Wendy Richard was the most recognisable actor from the original cast, she and her character Pauline were used heavily to promote EastEnders in the media. Wendy Richard, in character as Pauline, was chosen to narrate a special "dial-a-soap" service for EastEnders. Run by British Telecom, the facility allowed people who had missed an episode to ring a number and get an instant update, up to 88 seconds long. It was the first television show to provide such a service. Between 1985 and 2006, Pauline was featured in much EastEnders-related merchandise and promotional material, including calendars, cast-cards, annuals, novels, a knitting pattern book and a greeting card.

The well-known character of Pauline Fowler has also been referenced in various television programmes, unrelated to the EastEnders universe. In 1997 she was mentioned in an episode of the successful BBC drama This Life. Two key characters, Anna and Ferdy, watch an episode of EastEnders on television and mock Pauline's hysterics and her well-documented tendency to wear cardigans. The character was also regularly spoofed in the BBC comedy sketch show, The Real McCoy (1991–1995). One of the show's recurring sketches featured a spoof version of EastEnders, with black comedians taking over roles of well known EastEnders characters, who frequent a pub called Rub-a-Dub. The comedian Llewella Gideon played the role of Pauline. The sketches placed considerable emphasis on the character's high-pitched voice and her tendency to whine. The character's fashion sense has also been referred to in BBC Two sitcom Beautiful People (2008).

title: Pauline Fowler


text:
Edmonton Oil Kings (WCHL)

The Edmonton Oil Kings were a Canadian junior ice hockey team, and founding member of the Western Hockey League. They played at Edmonton Gardens in Edmonton, Alberta, and later Northlands Coliseum. In 1976, they moved to Portland, Oregon to become the Portland Winter Hawks. A second incarnation of the team played only one season in 1977–78 before moving to Great Falls, Montana.

Foundation of the Oil Kings
The Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) sought to combine the best players from the Edmonton Junior Hockey League into a Western Canada Junior Hockey League (WCJHL) team. An Edmonton team was formed for the 1950–51 season, but was denied entry since the WCJHL had already made its schedule. In response, the AAHA threatened not to sanction the other four Alberta-based teams in the league, but recanted and sought exhibition games for the Edmonton team. When players from Edmonton were added to the rosters of WCJHL teams, AAHA vice-president Art Potter stated that the players had not been released and faced suspension for not honouring commitments. After the players returned, Potter announced the team would be known as the Edmonton Oil Kings and play an exhibition schedule versus WCJHL teams.

Franchise history
The Edmonton Oil Kings won the Memorial Cup in 1963 and 1966 as members of the senior men's Central Alberta Hockey League. The team was required to defeat the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion to earn the right to play for the national junior championship. They were also cup finalists seven different years between 1954 and 1971.

In 1966, Bill Hunter, the team's General Manager, was concerned about the state of junior hockey in western Canada. Each of the west's four provinces all had their own junior league, and Hunter felt that this put them at a disadvantage when competing nationally against the powerful leagues in Ontario and Quebec. Hunter hoped to form a unified western league to compete.

Hunter's hopes became reality in the summer of 1966, when a revolt within the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League caused several of its top clubs, the Estevan Bruins, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Moose Jaw Canucks and Weyburn Red Wings, to leave the league and join Hunter's Oil Kings in forming a new league. A seventh franchise was also added in Calgary, the Calgary Buffaloes.

The Oil Kings captured back to back President's Cup titles in 1971 and 1972, however it would prove to be the final titles in the celebrated franchise's history, as the Oil Kings found it difficult to compete with the lure of pro hockey provided by the WHA's Edmonton Oilers. The Oil Kings moved to Portland, Oregon in 1976, to become the Portland Winter Hawks.

There was a second Edmonton Oil Kings hockey team in the WHL that played only one season. The Flin Flon Bombers moved to Edmonton for the 1978–79 WHL season, but only survived one year and moved on to Great Falls. The team folded as the Great Falls Americans, then was revived as the Spokane Flyers for two seasons before folding for good.

A new WHL team began play in Edmonton in 2007–08, reviving the Oil Kings name.

League membership
The Oil Kings played in the following leagues during its existence:
 * 1951–56: Western Canada Junior Hockey League
 * 1956–66: Central Alberta Hockey League
 * 1966–76: Western Canada Hockey League
 * 1978–79: Western Hockey League

Season-by-season record
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Central Alberta Hockey League (1956–66)
During this period the Oil Kings were a junior team playing their regular season in the senior-aged Central Alberta Hockey League. During the 1963–64 season, the Oil Kings also played an interlocking schedule of 14 games total against the seven teams in the original Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. The results for the 1964–65 and 1965–66 CAHL regular seasons are unavailable.

NHL alumni
• Ron Anderson

• Wayne Babych

• Garnet Bailey

• Jeff Bandura

• Dave Barr

• Doug Barrie

• Norm Beaudin

• Larry Bignell

• Tom Bladon

• Gregg Boddy

• Johnny Bucyk

• Craig Cameron

• Bryan Campbell

• Tony Currie

• John Davidson

• Ed Diachuk

• Marc Dufour

• Bob Falkenberg

• Harrison Gray

• Larry Hale

• Al Hamilton

• Ray Hannigan

• Jim Harrison

• Galen Head

• Rich Healey

• Bryan Hextall

• Ted Hodgson

• Chuck Holmes

• Dave Hoyda

• Fran Huck

• Frank Hughes

• Dave Inkpen

• Ron Jones

• Eddie Joyal

• Kerry Ketter

• Don Kozak

• Dave Kryskow

• Doug Lecuyer

• Craig Levie

• Ross Lonsberry

• Len Lunde

• Bruce MacGregor

• Bert Marshall

• Ted McAneeley

• Dunc McCallum

• Don McLeod

• Billy McNeill

• Gerry Melnyk

• Paul Messier

• Larry Mickey

• Wayne Muloin

• Paul Mulvey

• Bob Murdoch

• Hap Myers

• Ray Neufeld

• Brian Ogilvie

• Dan Olesevich

• Butch Paul

• Cliff Pennington

• Brent Peterson

• Pat Quinn

• Dave Richardson

• Gary Rissling

• Dave Rochefort

• John Rogers

• Darcy Rota

• Tom Roulston

• Phil Russell

• Glen Sather

• Jim Shires

• Gary Simmons

• Harold Snepsts

• Doug Soetaert

• Roy Sommer

• Frank Spring

• Wayne Stephenson

• Gord Strate

• Bobby Taylor

• Norm Ullman

• Bob Whitlock

• Randy Wyrozub

• Ed Zeniuk

Hockey Hall of Fame
 * Bryan Hextall (player, 1969 induction)
 * Johnny Bucyk (player, 1981 induction)
 * Norm Ullman (player, 1982 induction)
 * Glen Sather (builder, 1997 induction)

NHL 1st round draft picks
 * 1969 NHL Amateur Draft - Frank Spring #4 Overall (Boston Bruins)
 * 1971 NHL Amateur Draft - Ron Jones #6 Overall (Boston Bruins)
 * 1971 NHL Amateur Draft - Dan Spring #12 Overall (Chicago Black Hawks)
 * 1972 NHL Amateur Draft - Phil Russell #13 Overall (Chicago Black Hawks)
 * 1973 NHL Amateur Draft - Darcy Rota #13 Overall (Chicago Black Hawks)
 * 1975 NHL Amateur Draft - Robin Sadler #9 Overall (Montreal Canadiens)

title: Edmonton Oil Kings (WCHL)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Goga

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. Eugene van der Pijll 18:11, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Goga
dubious importance, lack of info given... been flagged for cleanup previously UkPaolo 15:57, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I put the "importance" tag on it, hoping somebody would explain what it means. There are a lot of Google hits for this word, but the first three pages didn't seem to return anything having to do with Sri Lankan comedy, and a search for goga "sri lanka" comedy gorilla wasn't productive.  Delete if not expanded by the end of the voting period.  RickK 19:50, May 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as unverifiable. Megan1967 09:55, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per RickK and Megan1967. Quale 05:45, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Goga


text:
Ontario Public Service Employees Union

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU; Syndicat des employés de la fonction publique de l'Ontario [SEFPO]) is a trade union representing public sector employees in the province of Ontario, Canada. It claims a membership of approximately 180,000 members. OPSEU was established in 1975 as the successor union to the former Civil Service Association of Ontario, which was founded in 1911. In 1979, OPSEU affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress, the National Union of Public and General Employees, and the Ontario Federation of Labour. OPSEU is affiliated to several labour councils across Ontario.

The current President is JP Hornick, who was elected to the position in April 2022. The labour expertise of President Hornick is recognized by their long-term role as a coordinator of the School of Labour at George Brown College. Hornick won election by beating out three other candidates for the position at the 2022 OPSEU/SEFPO Convention. Laurie Nancekivell is the union's First Vice-President/Treasurer and was also first elected at the 2022 Convention.

Membership and structure
The union is structured into local occupational groups, units or locals. Most members of OPSEU work for the Ontario Public Service, municipal governments and services, and the public college system. Additionally, some members work for private companies or organizations that are contracted to provide a public service such as hospitals and medical laboratories. The list of bargaining units includes Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology - Academic (CAAT-A) with about 12,000 members, just under 10% of OPSEU's total membership, Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology - Support (CAAT-S), Hospital Professionals Division Central Provisions (HPD), Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), Ontario Public Service (OPS). Other members include ambulance, developmental services, boards of education, children's aid societies, community agencies, long-term care, universities, hospital professionals, hospital support, municipalities, child treatment centres, municipal property assessment, mental health, Canadian Blood Services and Diagnostics. "OPSEU also represents members in many boards, Crown agencies, and tribunals, such as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the Ontario Pension Board, the Ontario New Democratic Party Caucus, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario."

In June, 2016, part-time support staff at all Ontario colleges held a vote on whether to join OPSEU. The College Employer Council blocked the counting of the ballots for more than a year, eventually losing. When the ballots were counted in January, 2018, 84% were in favour, leading to approximately 20,000 part-time support staff joining the union. OPSEU called this "the largest union organizing drive in Canadian history."

In October, 2017, part-time college faculty held a vote to join the union, but the results are not known because the College Employer Council is attempting to block the counting of the ballots.

The First Strike: 1996
In 1993, Ontario's first NDP government altered the legislation governing Ontario Public Service employees to allow them to strike. In 1996, Ontario Public Service employees struck legally (Correctional Officers struck illegally in 1979 ) for the first time in their history. The strike was deeply political; OPSEU rallied against the Mike Harris government's proposed job cuts. The tension between the Government and OPSEU culminated on March 18, 1996 in a confrontation between the OPP and OPSEU strikers at Queen's Park in Toronto. Ontario Provincial Police riot control officers were called in to escort members of parliament who were being prevented from entering the legislature. MPPs were pelted with rocks and paper cups when they tried to cross the line. The confrontation escalated when police began to push through the line of protesters and violence erupted. At least half a dozen protesters were injured.

2002
The second strike between OPSEU and the provincial government lasted 54 days (March 13 to May 5) in 2002. Again, tensions between managers and the union were strong. Although there was no bloody confrontation between the union and the government during this strike, there was a strong division between union members and management.

1984
College faculty were on strike from Oct. 16 until November 9, when they were legislated back to work.

1989
8,800 faculty members at Ontario's 22 community colleges went on strike on October 19, 1989. The strike ended on November 14 when OPSEU and the Ontario Council of Regents agreed to binding arbitration after back-to-work legislation was threatened. At the time, the average earnings of a teacher was about $47,000, and salaries ranged from $22,800 to $52,250.

2006
On March 7, 2006, roughly 9,100 faculty at Ontario's 24 colleges went on strike. Faculty returned to work on March 27 after 18 days on strike. At the time, full-time faculty had "a starting salary of about $32,000, an average pay of about $75,000 and a 16-year progression to reach top wage levels in their collective agreement, according to the union. The colleges offered a package that would have increased salaries by 12.6 per cent by the end of four years, taking the maximum pay to about $94,000. The union had proposed 12 per cent over three years."

2017
On October 16, 2017, roughly 12,000 full-time faculty, partial load faculty, counsellors and librarians at the province's 24 Colleges went out on strike. The OPSEU collective bargaining team for the teachers was led by J.P. Hornick, Coordinator of the School of Labour at George Brown College. Bill 178, the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Labour Dispute Resolution Act, 2017 was successfully passed on Sunday, November 19, 2017, ending the strike and sending the parties to mediation and binding arbitration. Faculty members returned to work on November 20. Students resumed classes on November 21, 2017. The parties agreed to employ William Kaplan as mediator-arbitrator under the legislation. He published his decision on Dec. 20, 2017, and both sides appeared to be pleased with the result. The decision included a 7.75 increase in wages over four years and a one time lump sum payment for full and part-time staff.

Controversies
In May 2021, allegations of systemic racism and harassment were made against OPSEU and were documented widely in Canadian media, alleging that leadership from the Executive Board, through to then-President Warren (Smokey) Thomas were creating and supporting environments which were toxic to Black members. Specifically, previous leaders in Algonquin College's OPSEU Local 415 harassed, surveilled and excluded the new Local president, who was a Black woman. Despite investigations substantiating those events, OPSEU was sluggish to enact remedies, in effect emboldening the perpetrators. The events received political attention from New Democrat MPP Joel Harden and Laura Mae Lindo, MPP chair of the Ontario NDP Black Caucus, who wrote to Thomas regarding the issue.

In April 2021, Thomas' leadership style began being questioned and openly discussed in the media.

Thomas retired in April 2022, after 15 years a president, and a new board was elected. In January 2023, OPSEU launched a lawsuit against Thomas and two executives who served under him alleging that they had misappropriated just under $6 million in union funds.

title: Ontario Public Service Employees Union


text:
Lethbridge City

Lethbridge City was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 1909 to 1921.

History
The Lethbridge City electoral district was created after the Lethbridge electoral district was split into the Lethbridge District and Lethbridge City electoral district in 1909.

Lethbridge district was all the rural area surrounding the City of Lethbridge, which in 1913, was split into Little Bow and Taber.

After Lethbridge District was dissolved there was no need to differentiate itself, and thus "City" was dropped in 1921 and Lethbridge was re-formed.

By-election reasons

 * October 31, 1911 —Resignation of Mr. William Buchanan to run for House for Commons.

Floor crossings

 * John Stewart became an Independent and ran for Re-election as an Independent in Lethbridge date not available

title: Lethbridge City


text:
Martín Espada

Martín Espada (born 1957) is a Puerto Rican-American poet, and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. Puerto Rico has frequently been featured as a theme in his poems.

Life and career
Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was introduced to political activism at an early age by his father, Frank Espada, a leader in the Puerto Rican community and the civil rights movement. Espada received a B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a J.D. from Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts). For many years, he worked as a tenant lawyer and a supervisor of a legal services program. In 1982, Espada published his first book of political poems, The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, featuring photography by his father. This was followed by Trumpets from the Islands of their Eviction (1987) and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands. In 2001, he was named the first Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. In 2018, Espada received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a lifetime achievement award given by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet that carries a $100,000 prize. Espada was the first Latino recipient of the honor.

About his first and subsequent visits to meet family in Puerto Rico, Espada said it was "absolutely transformative", an "absolute revelation", "a process of self-discovery", and that "going there affirms you have a history". His poem "Coca Cola and Coco Frio" is about that.

In 2009, Espada performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

In 2021, Espada won the National Book Award for Poetry for his poem "Floaters" about two migrants, Oscar and his daughter Valeria, who drowned crossing the Rio Grande at the U.S. Border.

Espada is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Awards and honours

 * Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship in Poetry, 1984
 * National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1986
 * PEN/Revson Foundation Fellowship in Poetry, 1989
 * Paterson Poetry Prize, 1991
 * National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1992
 * Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant, 1996
 * National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, 1997
 * Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, 1997
 * Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award, 1998
 * Pushcart Prize, 1999
 * Independent Publisher Book Award, 1999
 * Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, 2001
 * Antonia Pantoja Award, 2003
 * American Library Association Notable Book, 2004
 * Robert Creeley Award, 2004
 * Charity Randall Citation, 2005
 * John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2006
 * Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2007
 * San Francisco Chronicle Best Books, 2007
 * Library Journal Best Poetry Books, 2007
 * Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, 2007
 * Premio Fronterizo, 2007
 * National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, 2008
 * USA Simon Fellowship, 2010
 * Massachusetts Book Award, 2012
 * Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, 2012
 * International Latino Book Award, 2012
 * Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet in Residence, 2012
 * Busboys and Poets Award, 2014
 * Academy of American Poets Fellowship, 2018
 * Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, 2018
 * National Book Award for Poetry, 2021

Books of poetry

 * The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, Waterfront Press, 1982, ISBN 9780943862330
 * Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction, Bilingual Press, 1987, ISBN 9780916950729
 * Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands, Curbstone Press, 1990, ISBN 9780915306954
 * City of Coughing and Dead Radiators, W.W. Norton, 1993, ISBN 9780393312171
 * Imagine the Angels of Bread, Norton, 1996, ISBN 9780393039160
 * A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen, Norton, 2000, ISBN 9780393048889
 * Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 (W.W. Norton, 2003 US, 2004 UK)
 * La República de la Poesía (Mago Editores, Chile, 2007)
 * Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas, Smokestack Books, 2008, ISBN 9780955402814
 * La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig (Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico, 2008)
 * Soldados en el Jardín (El Gaviero Ediciones, Spain, 2009)
 * U.S.;, 2012, ISBN 9780393343564, UK
 * Floaters : Poems, W.W.Norton, 2021, ISBN 9780393541038
 * Floaters : Poems, W.W.Norton, 2021, ISBN 9780393541038
 * Floaters : Poems, W.W.Norton, 2021, ISBN 9780393541038

Books of essays

 * Auf der Suche nach La Revolución (Agentur Machtwort, Germany, 2004)
 * Auf der Suche nach La Revolución (Agentur Machtwort, Germany, 2004)
 * Auf der Suche nach La Revolución (Agentur Machtwort, Germany, 2004)

As editor

 * Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination (Curbstone, 1994)
 * His Hands Were Gentle: Selected Lyrics of Víctor Jara (Smokestack, UK, 2012)
 * What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press, Curbstone, 2019)
 * What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press, Curbstone, 2019)

In anthology

 * Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, University of Georgia Press, 2018, ISBN 9780820353159
 * Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other U. S. A. Smokestack Books. ISBN 978-0955402821

title: Martín Espada


text:
Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-30/Features and admins

Maybe I'm just too early, but a few articles that were featured just yesterday seem to be missing:
 * Gbe languages (FAC) (unanimous, 12 support votes)
 * The Brothers Karamazov (FAC) (6 support, 3 neutral comments)
 * Polish September Campaign (FAC) (much discussion, 5 support, about 3 neutral comments). Regards, — mark ✎ 15:59, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

A minor clarification
FIliocht is a very minor poet in the real world. Filiocht | Blarneyman 07:39, Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)


text:
User:Anandraj~enwiki

BOOK REVIEW

HTML black book - By Steven Holzner

This book is a paradise for any web designer, be it a novice or an advanced one. The book contains information about all the tags used in the HTML and also about server side scripting and these are explained in simple and lucid language. Also, the author assumes no prior knowledge of HTML in any way.

The book has indepth explanation for presenting texts, images, tables, frames, incorporating multimedia in web pages, objects, style sheets etc. with illustrations. This book also gives conceptual knowledge about javascripts, java applets, XML, perl, CGI scripts etc., so that the user need not refer to any other book(s) for basic concepts of these.

The presentation of the book is systematic with arrangement of topics under the sections 'in depth' and 'immediate solution'. The latter can be used for reference purpose, since searching for a particular keyword becomes easy.

In my opinion, this book is a complete study and reference material for the web designers.

Anandraj Soni. anandraj.soni@gmail.com

title: User:Anandraj~enwiki


text:
Talk:OOC

Should this not be merged with Out of character? - Quirk 16:02, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, and it just has. - Allycat

title: Talk:OOC