2022 Winnipeg Mayoral election

[trueviking]

I don’t mind gillingham to be honest. He’s a good person. But Murray is a true urbanist. I wonder if him entering will make Scott think twice. He’s a good councillor and it would be valuable to have him in EPC.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Gillingham is not a pot hole filler he would just be a continuation of Bowman offering too little to tackle real problems only political correctness and ceremonies.

Yeah, Bowman kind of comes across as an actor cast in the role of "Mayor" as opposed to an actual politician. From what little I know of Gillingham he seems similar.

I still don't know what Motkaluk's message will be this time out. Last time her "angry Jenny" approach got her the runner-up position, 36% of the vote compared to Bowman's 53%. It doesn't look like she's doubling down on that, it seems that she wants to take a softer stance.

[peg]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Murray entering the race shortly.

Great news

[Biff]

I heard Murray is announcing his run on Friday.

[thurmas]

I hope Murray wins but the establishment sure seems bent on getting Gillingham in and continuing the mediocrity we have had at city hall the past many years. Where is Gillingham on tackling the police and wfp budgets? Using the laws on the books to stop pan handling at every major red light intersection? Getting attractions in the city for youth because we all know how little there is in this city for attractions for young people the list goes on and on

[wags_in_the_peg]

i thought Gillingham would be ok, understands the "financial" side of the City, not a dimwit. But former pastor of a church turns me off to be honest.

Rana Bokhari of interest to anyone? young,female, immigrant family, lawyer, former politician. She appeals to me way more than angry Jenny.

Murray will be interesting to see what ideas he brings

[zalf]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

Rana Bokhari of interest to anyone?

Ask me when she has a policy platform

[blueandgoldguy]

Bah, kids have endless entertainment options nowadays with tonnes of streaming services with a million movies and tv shows, countless video games with each one providing dozens or hundreds of hours of entertainment. They don't need any more entertainment options.

Back in my day, we had 4 Canadian channels and 4 American channels to choose from, no internet, video game options were limited and the games themselves were mostly short...and the developer's idea of most of the longer games was simply repeating the same levels over and over again, only adding more enemies and making them faster.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by zalf

Ask me when she has a policy platform

Bokhari might end up articulating some interesting ideas or not, but it's hard to overlook her disaster of a provincial campaign at the helm of the Liberals from a few years back. Some of those mistakes aren't ones that can be blamed on other people either.

I mean, when someone asks if you about your tax returns and your response is that you don't know whether you filed them, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence...

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

Bokhari might end up articulating some interesting ideas or not, but it's hard to overlook her disaster of a provincial campaign at the helm of the Liberals from a few years back. Some of those mistakes aren't ones that can be blamed on other people either.

I mean, when someone asks if you about your tax returns and your response is that you don't know whether you filed them, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence...

And for someone trying to wrap herself in the flag of representing the "non-white" (her words at launch) and reconciliation her family is full of the lawyers and owns a law firm that is embroiled in controversy regarding the legal fees/contract for service charged to residential school survivors who received settlements.

It's a tough one to reconcile for me as a person who is of mixed background. I would support candidates generally who walk the walk of reconciliation. If she wants to she needs a platform that outlines how she will do that at the municipal level beyond land acknowledgements.

I don't find her to be a credible candidate. She has the vibe of someone who has jumped through the hoops she thinks she needs to for political success but has no clue how to actually put it into practice.

Motkaluk would be in the same category for me although she has some establishment support as a puppet candidate IMO.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Wow, thx for the info, I was unaware of much of that

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

And for someone trying to wrap herself in the flag of representing the "non-white" (her words at launch) and reconciliation her family is full of the lawyers and owns a law firm that is embroiled in controversy regarding the legal fees/contract for service charged to residential school survivors who received settlements.

It's a tough one to reconcile for me as a person who is of mixed background. I would support candidates generally who walk the walk of reconciliation. If she wants to she needs a platform that outlines how she will do that at the municipal level beyond land acknowledgements.

I don't find her to be a credible candidate. She has the vibe of someone who has jumped through the hoops she thinks she needs to for political success but has no clue how to actually put it into practice.

Motkaluk would be in the same category for me although she has some establishment support as a puppet candidate IMO.

Well put regarding both Bokhari and Motkaluk. The words "puppet candidate" are apt regarding the latter.

As for Glen Murray, it will be interesting to see how his campaign is received. Around the time he ran for re-election in 2002, some elements of the local media basically took it upon themselves to run against him, and we ended up with very vocal attacks mainly by Charles Adler of CJOB (which was still a fairly influential news outlet at the time) and the Winnipeg Sun. Of course, Murray overcame that and won, but those outlets were definitely thorns in his side. Things have changed a bit since then and I wouldn't expect them to play a similar role 20 years later. But I wonder whether there will be new sources of strident opposition to Murray... maybe from people on social media?

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by esquire

Well put regarding both Bokhari and Motkaluk. The words "puppet candidate" are apt regarding the latter.

As for Glen Murray, it will be interesting to see how his campaign is received. Around the time he ran for re-election in 2002, some elements of the local media basically took it upon themselves to run against him, and we ended up with very vocal attacks mainly by Charles Adler of CJOB (which was still a fairly influential news outlet at the time) and the Winnipeg Sun. Of course, Murray overcame that and won, but those outlets were definitely thorns in his side. Things have changed a bit since then and I wouldn't expect them to play a similar role 20 years later. But I wonder whether there will be new sources of strident opposition to Murray... maybe from people on social media?

Winnipeg was a different place in 2002. Property taxes were relatively high compared to other Canadian cities and population growth was nearly non-existent (but would pick up in the coming years), and so it makes sense that someone challenging the status quo would be challenged by people with more conservative ideas.

Winnipeg has changed a lot since then, and has become much more diverse (13% of people were visible minority in 2001, compared to 28% in 2016, and I'm sure it will be much higher in 2021 when the census data is released). Winnipeg now also has the lowest property tax out of other major Canadian cities, and population has grown by over 130,000 people (20%) since 2001. So while the pandemic did seem to kill a lot of downtown momentum, I see people actively calling for the city to increase scrutiny on police and fire budgets, increase property taxes to fund infrastructure, and better urban planning, more so than ever before I think.

Whether the progressives' votes will outweigh those who don't want change, it remains to be seen. But more and more people want Winnipeg to be better, are tired of the same old problems decade after decade, and seem to be willing to pay to fix issues if the right person comes along - but whether or not we see change this year is anyone's guess at this point.

[esquire]

As much as I liked Glen Murray, he did benefit hugely from a very friendly provincial government with a fair bit of money to spend for 5 of his 6 years in the Mayor's Office. It would be a very different situation today.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by esquire

As much as I liked Glen Murray, he did benefit hugely from a very friendly provincial government with a fair bit of money to spend for 5 of his 6 years in the Mayor's Office. It would be a very different situation today.

That could quickly change, as I think the PCs will be in for a very tough election. In fairness to Stefanson, though, she has been slightly more co-operative with the City than Pallister ever was.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by zalf

That could quickly change, as I think the PCs will be in for a very tough election. In fairness to Stefanson, though, she has been slightly more co-operative with the City than Pallister ever was.

Yeah, the thought did cross my mind regarding a possible change in governments. But that said, a Kinew NDP government will be much more financially constrained in terms of what they can do as compared to the Doer years when the taps were flowing on all kinds of huge projects, including some in Winnipeg (floodway expansion, east side road, northern dam projects, MTS Centre, Manitoba Hydro Place, etc.).

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by esquire

Well put regarding both Bokhari and Motkaluk. The words "puppet candidate" are apt regarding the latter.

As for Glen Murray, it will be interesting to see how his campaign is received. Around the time he ran for re-election in 2002, some elements of the local media basically took it upon themselves to run against him, and we ended up with very vocal attacks mainly by Charles Adler of CJOB (which was still a fairly influential news outlet at the time) and the Winnipeg Sun. Of course, Murray overcame that and won, but those outlets were definitely thorns in his side. Things have changed a bit since then and I wouldn't expect them to play a similar role 20 years later. But I wonder whether there will be new sources of strident opposition to Murray... maybe from people on social media?

I recall that. Charles ranting about Murray on a seemingly daily basis. But I don't exactly remember what Adler and the Sun had against Murray. Was it the million dollar downtown parties? FUnding for the DINK bridge as the right wing media lovingly called it? His progressive policies?

They sure couldn't have complained about municipal taxes. Murray never raised those during his tenure.

[wags_in_the_peg]

I love when people bring up the "dink bridge" but yet every postcard picture of Wpg has it. Yes yes I know cuz millions spent getting water to it, but it's still fantastic and so well used.

[esquire]

"dink bridge" was Tom Brodbeck's thing back when he was with the Sun. He popularized the term, along with "million dollar toilet". He and Adler were the media tag team obsessed with stopping Murray.

I guess in hindsight the restaurant space on the bridge was a bit of a bust, but everything else seemed to work out fine.

[Sheepish]

CJOB and Charles Adler became the Winnipeg version of FOX News and Tucker Carlson. It became unlistenable one sided right wing propaganda. It would sure be interesting to see if Murray joins the race.