Thoughts on the Winnipeg Civic Election 2014 In a few days, our communities will elect Councilors and Mayor who will lead us through the next four years. In some wards like St. Norbert, where incumbents have stepped down, we will likely elect Councilors who will be in place for the next 2 to 3 terms, meaning 8 to 12 years. I’d like to share some thoughts about this election both at the Mayoral and Councilor levels. I hope this will continue the dialogue around our election and beyond. The increased awareness of candidates and issues can only help in building a more active and resilient democracy. I’ve listed only the top factors, ones that I consider deal-breakers. I have also put forward some ideas that I would like to see brought forward in the coming term. For Mayor: Judy Wasylycia-Leis is my choice for Mayor above all else, because she has positioned herself to meet the needs of various communities that make up Winnipeg. She has achieved this through relationship-building engagement across class and cultural lines over decades of community service. Building social health from a community perspective is a very different primary mission than building a robust economy. Both need to go hand-in-hand but too often, the business model of governance minimizes or even eliminates the social and cultural realities that create a healthy city. Brian Bowman is a business-oriented candidate with the large part of his platform organized around business ideas. He has the backing of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce as Past-President of the Board of Directors. Dave Angus, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO is on his list of endorsements. So is True North’s Mark Chipman, making clear that he has positioned himself as the business community’s Mayor. An ideal scenario in the case of a Judy Wasylycia-Leis win would be to create a succession plan for Robert Falcon-Ouellette to become the next Mayor of Winnipeg. This would also allow Falcon-Ouellette time to continue to expand his connections throughout the various communities in Winnipeg over the coming four years. This would demonstrate an unprecedented commitment of team building at City Hall. The winning mayoral candidate would be wise to further team-build by working with ideas put forward throughout the campaign by David Sanders and Paula Havixbeck. My thanks to all mayoral candidates who put forward respectful and considered positions. It has been a stimulating whole-community conversation. For St. Norbert City Council: Sachit Mehra is my choice for St. Norbert Councilor because he has a proven track record through his work on the Winnipeg BIZ board supporting downtown renewal and tackling issues like poverty, homelessness and crime. He is also connected to numerous communities, especially through his endorsement by the Winnipeg Labour Council and his long-standing work with the Manitoba Liberals. These diverse endorsements will help to engage him as a Councilor who seeks consensus. In St. Norbert, where suburban sprawl still has room to stretch its negative tentacles, a Councilor with a proven track record of opposing suburban sprawl is essential. Some have complained that Mehra is too “downtown” but I don’t agree. I feel that without a safe, vibrant, dense downtown, we all lose out. City Councilors cannot simply vie for their own communities without a greater connection to the so-called downtown issues. We need a vision for development that doesn’t include the big developers having free reign over city hall. Janice Lukes has a longstanding working affiliation and more recently a position as Executive Assistant to past-councilor Justin Swandel - an uncomfortable beginning point for her foray into politics. Swandel has publicly stated that his career is now transitioning from politics to “real estate.” How will Lukes deal with a prior working relationship with Swandel in the coming term? Why has she not come forward to publicly criticize Swandel’s past performance at City Hall? To do so would be to distance her from his part of the clearly destructive administration of the past several terms. Lukes’ association with Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge is equally troubling. In his recent community newsletter, paid by tax dollars and reaching every constituent in South Winnipeg, Bruinooge allocates a prime location photograph of himself and Lukes calling her “a great friend.” This is a significant piece of “free” advertising for Lukes’ campaign that should be valued as part of her campaign’s spending limit. An endorsement by Rod Bruinooge with a free advertising piece is a clear Conservative endorsement. While at the same time, Lukes claims to be independent and without any ties to any political party. My own decision not to run in this election is primarily as a result of my commitment to our family and community business, Aurora Farm. I remain committed to independent community activism. My thanks to the many people who encouraged (and dis-encouraged) me to run! As a life-long feminist, I live by the adage that the personal is political and vice versa. Other community projects proposals for the coming term: Municipal politics are important and exciting when one considers that the municipal budget and most by-laws do affect our daily lives. We as citizens have an opportunity to collaborate with elected officials as well as bureaucrats to enact the budget and bylaws to their best potential. In this election, infrastructure is important but not the infrastructure that keeps us tied to our current consumerist car culture. No, the infrastructure that we need is that which prepares us for our future – a future that will be directly connected to the state of the global eco-system health. A whole different vision for transportation with electric public transit, car co-ops and pooling, park & rides, better taxi services and plenty of disincentives to significantly reduce the numbers of cars on the road. Less cars on our roads is a more important long-term project than continually filling potholes. Consumer-model economic plans are inappropriate for a forward-looking city. An economy that builds resilience and equality for all citizens is needed. Yes, it is a local small-scale green economy – owned and driven by local community groups and individuals building essential services and goods that are reliable and cost effective. Our municipal landfill is stuck in the past. With a vision focused on environmental responsibility, Winnipeg could cut our collective carbon footprint and boast the great ideas that are coming forward from the University of Manitoba Natural Resource Institute and others. Nearby area residents deserve to have good air quality and a clear understanding of the real risks and accompanying safety plans. An ecologically sound development and food security plan can be achieved by transforming the remaining agricultural lands in St. Norbert into small and mid-scaled food production for local consumption especially in light of the current expansion of the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market. Caring for our wildlife by planning a city-wide natural ecosystem corridor will put Winnipeg on the map as a sustainable city while also creating significantly better air quality. In St. Norbert, we will have to rally to ensure that the extension of Route 90 does not deter the quality of wildlife habitat of the LaSalle River. In the coming few years we will celebrate the 150th birthdays of Manitoba and Canada, 200th year celebration of St. Norbert and 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike. We have the opportunity to work together as grassroots community members to vision our future 100 and 200 years from now.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 03:42:54 +0000
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