Strange Bedfellows >>> Winnipeg, Canada

I wanted to share the following with you. This is awhile ago now. This is from a local Winnipeg, Canada paper.

An Ontario MP is still shivering after an eerie encounter with a weird and unwanted bedfellow during her stay in the Fort Garry Hotel at this past week's Liberal caucus meeting. But MP Brenda Chamberlain isn't about to call it a ghost. "I'm not saying it was a ghost. I don't believe in such things. It's like aliens and until someone can prove that they exist I think it's better to just discount the whole thing," Chamberlain said yesterday during a phone interview from her home in Elora, Ont. "Still, what happened was eerie," said the 48-year-old pooh-pooher of the paranormal, who was spooked into changing rooms because she felt a presence climb into her bed. The mother of three said it all began about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when she was wakened from a deep sleep. "I could feel something there but I initially thought it was related to a dream. But it certainly jolted me enough to get me up, so I went to the bathroom. And then climbed back into bed and tried to go to sleep, " said Chamberlain, who represents the riding of Guelph-Wellington and is chairwoman the Liberals' Ontario caucus. At 3:15 a.m., the MP was lying on her side unable to sleep when something shook the mattress. "I know it sounds crazy but it happened again. It was as if my husband got on the bed, but much lighter. The movements were also much more than he would make. I was lying there startled," said Chamberlain. Unnerved, she jumped out of bed and scrambled to turn on the light to find out who had joined her in Room 202. "I know I moved fast enough that the only place a person could have hid was under the bed. And from where the light switch is, I had a view that showed me no one was there," Chamberlain said. Collecting her wits, she took a Tylenol PM to knock herself out and went to sleep. Later that morning, Chamberlain reluctantly told Liberal MP Joe Comuzzi about her experience. That's when she heard the 87-YEAR-OLD FORT GARRY HOTEL had a long history of being haunted. And as the day unwound she learned enough folklore about the place that she knew she didn't want to sleep in Room 202 again. "I heard the story about Ida, the woman that went to bed without her husband and then felt him sit down on the bed. When she turned to look and he wasn't there. When I heard that, I thought it was a little too close for comfort and decided it was time to change rooms," said the MP, who told the hotel staff unless they are willing to give her a discount since she's sharing the room she wanted to sleep somewhere else. "I've only seen one person as badly spooked as the MP when she asked to be moved," a man at the front desk said yesterday who didn't say who the other person was. Stories of haunting are almost as old as the hotel. One female guest reported a woman in a ball gown hovering at the foot of her bed. Cleaning staff in the past reported mysterious noises and countless incidents of cutlery and cups being shuffled around in rooms that were supposed to be empty. There are other tales of a strange light hovering in the hallways, but there is no scientific evidence of paranormal activity. And many staff at the hotel dismiss any notions that the "castle" is haunted. "I've been here three years and in every corner of this hotel at all times and I've never seen a ghost," employee Ryan Ocbina said. "But I've sure heard a lot of ghost stories. And it has certainly made this place an attraction." But not for Chamberlain-even if the place gets ghost-busted. "I'm never coming back to the Fort Garry," she said.