Quote:
Originally Posted by pacman
Anyone angry that Murray didn't win should be angry at Murray. He had a red carpet laid out for him by a city that wanted him to become mayor. All he had to do was back his abstract vision with a little bit of meat on the bone that the regular folk could realistically visualize, stay true to his simple long standing beliefs like opening Portage and Main instead of completely waffling on such a layup for him, and address his past issues in a thoughtful honest manner instead of the passive dismissive way he did. Also, it seemed like he tried to run out the clock hoping he had a big enough lead to coast, then started throwing things against the wall last minute when he started feeling the heat. He could've easily won this race with more than 40% of the vote and has nobody to blame but himself and his campaign team.
I get that people are frustrated that Murray didn't win, but this shouldn't be held against Gillingham. Like him or not, he ran a consistent campaign, put out his platform early and gave people the chance to pick it apart, stayed true to his messages which were articulated in a clear manner that was easy to understand (yes, simple). He also presented himself as someone who could bring people together and get people working in the same direction and I don't think this gets enough attention.
In the end it seems people were willing to go forward with a less grandiose but more realistic vision. For me personally I'm one of the guys who bash Winnipeg's lack of big city vision from time to time when I return from other cities and hate the stagnation here. I was excited when Murray announced he was running because I felt that he had that vision. Obviously I wasn't the only one seeing the early polling results. Unfortunately the longer this campaign went on the less I believed Murray had the ability to actually deliver even a semblance of his vision. It had nothing to do with his past at the Pembina Institute or the negative CBC stories on him, it was because it felt like he was going through the motions IN HIS CAMPAIGN! If he was already going through the motions without being elected, what chance was there that he could actually find that gear when elected? It seems he has changed since his stint as mayor and has lost that fire. I really wish he was able to capture the hearts of Winnipeg because I want this city to be progressive and move forward, but he lost this election more than Gillingham won it.
That being said, Gillingham has some solid plans that I hope he can build consensus and deliver because actually delivering is more important than just promising, and obviously the people of Winnipeg felt Gillingham had a better chance at delivering than Murray.
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I 100% agree with this take. Like many on this forum, I was initially excited when rumors popped up about Glen running again, being somewhat familiar with his progressive ideas. And early on in his campaign, I was convinced he was the right choice for Winnipeg with his strong focus on urban renewal and transit. But as the campaign wore on, it became clear that the urbanist ideals were nothing more than a shiny façade with no realistic funding plan in place.
You absolutely cannot claim to be the "urbanist, progressive choice" when one of your main policy choices is to freeze taxes in an ailing city already short on cash that has the lowest average taxes in Canada and lowest spending per capita. "Starving the beast" doesn't work when it's already skin and bones, and his supplementary revenue choices that came out after his commitment to property tax freeze were unrealistic and poorly thought-out.
What good is it to have good marketing and good ideas when you don't even have the guts to raise the revenue needed to achieve it? To me, that just suggests Murray was more of a desperate opportunist, looking to secure employment based on name recognition and catering to both urbanists and fiscal conservatives. And I believe Winnipeggers seemingly recognized this and chose not to give in to such a weak portfolio of policy positions.
I think
this video on Murray committing to freeze taxes at the CBC debate is what sealed the deal on my opinion of him, and many others felt the same way it seems. First, all candidates aside from Murray respond "yes" to raising taxes - even Klein for goodness sakes!; second, Murray observes everyone else's response before submitting his, and third, flip-flops multiple times on his decision before settling on "no". My guess is in that moment, Murray thinks this will dictate whether he sinks or swims. He thinks he can edge out a win if he maintains his urbanist positions while appealing to cheap Winnipeggers who don't like taxes, and continue to mislead them by promising to get a cut of PST or some other pie-in-the-sky revenue source and when that doesn't pan out, will pass the blame to someone else.
Thankfully a small majority of voters saw past this scheme and I believe it backfired. Many Winnipeggers rightfully recognize that tax freezes are not sustainable right now, and I truly think if Murray had committed to modest increases in property taxes like EVERYONE else, he would have won by a small margin. But instead, people now saw an unrealistic visionary which is not actually what this city needs.
People will say Gillingham is just more of the same, and that was certainly my stance several months ago. But when it comes down to it, his plan is the most realistic and financially planned out, and he probably has the most integrity and least controversy among any city councilor. I hope Gillingham will put a realistic emphasis on downtown and transit, but the ultimate oxymoron is that so many on this forum complain about roads and infrastructure, and lack of municipal spending, and Gillingham comes in with among the highest proposed revenue increases with a focus on infrastructure (how exactly is that super conservative to the lot of you?) and people still complain. Can't make anyone happy in democracy I suppose.
A pragmatic and costed platform is worth more than a pie-in-the-sky unrealistic but "progressive" empty word-smithed platform. Glad to see this realized.
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Let's build better roads at the expense of urban renewal to make it faster for people to leave for better cities and complain about Winnipeg from afar.
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