#munipoli Matters - ISSUE 52 - What's happening in the Manitoba municipal elections?
Welcome to another edition of #munipoli Matters, where we discuss all things related to municipal government, local politics that often gets under-reported in Canada and beyond.
Admittedly I know very little about what goes on in the self described ‘physical Central Canada’ other than in Manitoba’s capital city. There is a great resource that outlines all the municipalities in Manitoba with elections happening, but for now let’s focus mainly on the provincial capital.
Winnipeg
Mayor: Two term incumbent Brian Bowman is not seeking a third term, so there is a plethora of contenders, 11 to be precise, running to replace him. They are:
Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a 2014 mayoral candidate and former Liberal MP for Winnipeg Centre from 2015 to 2019.
Rana Bokhari, former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party.
Jenny Motkaluk, businesswoman and 2018 mayoral candidate
Don Woodstock
Glen Murray, former Winnipeg mayor from 1998 to 2004, former Ontario Liberal MPP for Toronto Centre and cabinet minister. Ran for federal Green Party leadership in 2020.
Scott Gillingham, current City Councillor for St. James ward
Kevin Klein, current Councillor for Charleswood - Tuxedo - Westwood ward
Idris Adelakun, a profession engineer originally from Nigeria
Rick Shone
Shaun Loney, an entrepreneur and former environmental policy analyst
Chris Clacio
Meanwhile in the individual Ward Council races:
Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood: with Klein seeking the mayoralty, this ward becomes open for five candidates to become the new councillor: media personality Hal Anderson, 2014 candidate Evan Duncan, Steve Minion, realtor Brad Gross and Gordon Penner.
Daniel McIntyre: Councillor Cindy Gilroy is seeking her third term, facing business owner Sal Infantino and Omar Kinnarath.
Elmwood-East Kildonan: Councillor Jason Schreyer is running for reelection. His only challenger is culinary chef Ryan Kochie.
Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry: Councillor Sherri Rollins is running for reelection, with Michael Thompson as her only challenger.
Mynarski: Incumbent Councillor Ross Eadie is facing four challengers: Ed Radchenka, Steve Snyder, Natalie Smith and Aaron McDowell, Eadie’s former Executive Assistant for the past 12 years.
North Kildonan: Councillor Jeff Browaty will be seeking reelection and is facing Andrew Podolecki in the ward race.
Old Kildonan: Councillor Devi Sharma has been acclaimed to another term.
Point Douglas: Councillor Vivian Santos is seeking another term. Her two challengers are realtor Joe Pereira and Winnipeg Police Board member Moe Eltassi.
River Heights-Fort Garry: Councillor John Orlikow, who earlier this year mused about running for mayor, is seeking reelection to Council instead. Lawyer Brant Field and Gary Lenko are also running.
St. Boniface: Councillor Matt Allard is seeking reelection, facing realtor Marcel Boille and Nicholas Douklias in his bid for another term.
St. James: With Gillingham also running for mayor, this ward has five candidates vying to become its next councillor: Daevid Ramey, Kelly Ryback, Eddie Ayoub, former 2018 mayoral candidate Tim Diack and former councillor Shawn Dobson.
Dobson was on council for four years (2014-2018) before ward boundary readjustments dissolved his ward. He then ran in St. James and lost to Gillingham in the 2018 election.
St. Norbert-Seine River: Councillor Markus Chambers has been acclaimed.
St. Vital: Councillor Brian Mayes is campaigning for reelection, facing previous candidate Baljeet Sharma and Derrick Dujlovic.
Transcona: First term Councillor Shawn Nason is fending off three challengers to his seat, including Russ Wyatt, the ward’s previous incumbent from 2002 to 2018. Other candidates include Wally Welechenko and Steve Lipischak.
Waverley West: Councillor Janice Lukes was acclaimed to this ward in 2018 upon readjustment of ward boundaries. This time, she faces one opponent: social entrepreneur Pascal Scott.
In some of Manitoba’s other municipalities, the City of Brandon will elect a new mayor as incumbent Rick Chrest is stepping aside. Councillor Jeff Fawcett is facing only one challenger and looks to have the inside track on winning the open seat.
In Winkler, Mayor Martin Harder is not running as well and the seat is being contested between Councillor Henry Siemens and Karl Krebs, a local anti-vaxxer who attended the Ottawa Freedom Convoy earlier this year.
Over in Portage la Prairie, Mayor Irvine Ferris’ isn’t seeking another term and there are four contenders: Bryon Hamilton, Councillor Sharilyn Knox, former councillor Donald Pelechaty and Mohammad Tahir Khan.
Could Vancouver bring back an NBA team?
There’s nothing like a municipal election campaign that causes local politicians to make some bold promises…such as bringing back a beloved basketball franchise to the city. In the mayor’s race in Vancouver, two candidates have already made such a commitment.
Progress Vancouver’s mayoral candidate Mark Marissen said he would work to bring an NBA franchise back to Vancouver. From 1995 to 2001, the Vancouver Grizzlies played on the West Coast until they were transferred to Memphis, Tennessee.
“Having fun is essential to a happy life. Vancouver has so much potential to be the funnest city in the country. I want to unlock that potential,” Marissen said in his tweet. Bringing back the NBA to Vancouver is just one part of the party’s platform on expanding fun and recreation in the city.
NPA mayoral candidate Fred Harding also promised the same thing, although he seems to be bearing the brunt of the derision on such an idea than Marissen.
Although it may sound like a corny gimmick, I have spoken with a friend who moved to Vancouver recently and the idea of bringing an NBA franchise does have some appeal. Recreation is an important part of a city that ties into economic opportunity and the quality of social life.
Caledon councillor lands new role at PR firm
Outgoing Caledon regional councillor Johanna Chevalier, who previously went by Johanna Downey, has landed a role at Counsel Public Affairs as an Associate Vice President, focusing on the firm’s Ontario clients.
Chevalier initially was seeking reelection, but then decided not to run again. Even before landing her current role with Counsel PR, the Caledon politician was already seeking greener pastures, managing the reelection campaign of local Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones during the June provincial election.
Election sign silliness
During election season, it’s customary to see the proverbial ‘sign wars’ flair up. Certain municipalities have designated specific areas where signs from all candidates are allowed and some just allow them to be put up anywhere.
But nowadays, when you’ve got others putting up signs for you…sometimes things can get a little out of hand. Here is Brampton Wards 2 & 6 city council candidate Navjit Baur showing how one of her opponents put his signs right up in front of hers to obscure people seeing it. It is blatantly clear that was what the intention was.
Some aren’t exactly dirty tricks from opposing candidates, but somewhat due to laziness of a candidate’s campaign themselves. Jermaine Chambers, who is running for the same position as Baur, is a former federal Conservative candidate and was even running for Brampton mayor prior to Patrick Brown reentering the race. Here’s a sign of his found recently in the ward.
The large C on the corner is evident of Chambers’ past Conservative associations, as you can see that the party name has been painted over, but I believe there is some rule regarding using election resources for another level of government.
But the last minute penmanship is probably the icing on the cake, as it is just unprofessional and not serious…especially if it appears you misspelled the word “Select”. Not sure if that would endear one to more voters.
Although hilariously enough, Brampton mayoral candidate Nikki Kaur had her own sign snafu recently, misspelling the city name as ‘Bramton’ about 100 signs, which her campaign have since recalled. Kaur appears to have recovered quickly enough, convincing a former Brown supporter to switch his endorsement from the incumbent mayor over to the former whistle-blower.
(Clip was translated to me from Punjabi by a local resident)
Please subscribe below to get more #munipoli news directly in your inbox.