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Thomas plans to run for mayor

'Fed up' with Katz's decisions

By: Bartley Kives
16/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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[IMG]http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/240*290/1728401.jpg[/IMG] Enlarge Image http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/d...geicon_WFP.gif
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS / JAN 24 2007 - 070124 - Bart Kives City Hall story - in pic coiuncillor Lillian Thomas speaks in support Kelvin Community Club , with it's supporters in the gallery of Council Chambers close cut processed


Coun. Lillian Thomas plans to run for mayor next year and believes she can turn "a growing frustration" with Sam Katz into an election victory.The veteran councillor plans to give up the Elmwood-East Kildonan seat she's held since 1989 and try to become the first person to knock off an incumbent mayor in Winnipeg since Stephen Juba defeated George Sharpe in 1957.
"I have a lot of experience. I've been on all the committees. I think I have a handle on the job," the 60-year-old politician said on Tuesday following a council meeting that saw her vote against the 2010 capital budget.
Thomas said she's running for mayor because she's fed up with Katz-supported council decisions such as the sale of the Winnipeg Square Parkade and the creation of a new corporate utility to replace the city's water-and-waste department. She's also annoyed with "last-minute" plans being placed on council agendas.
"You walk in here and you say, 'What the heck is he up to today?' " she said.
Ordinary Winnipeggers are increasingly upset with Katz as well, she claimed.
"I've been sensing in this city a growing frustration with the way things are going," she said. "I don't think he is paying attention to the anger that's out there with a number of things he has done."
Thomas said she hopes to enlist the support of Manitoba's New Democrats, whose party machinery has aided council candidates in the past. Defeating Katz will not be easy without the party's endorsement, she said.
But her declaration took NDP officials by surprise.
"I'm kind of stunned by this news. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because she's been around," Manitoba NDP president Lorraine Sigurdson said.
"I would think there would be a few more conversations before she came out so boldly," added Liam Martin, the co-chair of the Winnipeg Citizens' Coalition, a group that's trying to ensure NDP and Liberal council candidates don't run against each other in 2010.
"I don't know how well her name resonates in south Winnipeg, to be frank," Martin said. "She has been around for 20 years. She has been a vocal, consistent opponent of Sam. If she thinks her time is now, power to her."
Katz said he welcomes Thomas' declaration, even though he rejected the notion Winnipeggers are growing upset with him. The most recent Probe Research poll places his approval rating at 74 per cent, he noted.
"You can take that scientific poll and take it as fact, or you can take what Coun. Thomas is asserting," he said. "I think for the first time in a long time, Winnipeggers are feeling very good about our city and are seeing good things getting done."
With the NDP poised to hold nomination meetings in some council wards in 2010, possibly in concert with the Winnipeg Citizens' Coalition, Katz said he will do "everything in my power" to stop the NDP from controlling city council. Although a small-C conservative, Katz claims to be the only member of council who has never held a membership in any political party.
Thomas, meanwhile, is encouraging her executive assistant, Darryl Livingstone, to run for council in Elmwood-East Kildonan next year. He said Tuesday he has yet to decide whether to run.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 16, 2009 B1


http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...-79392107.html






awww no way would i vote for you lillian after sitting at several concle meetings and such......

Well, she's got the cat-lady vote locked up.

Cat ladies vote?

I liked this comment on Thomas from the readers section in the Freep:


And great for Councillor Thomas. After 20 years of making Elmwood what it is, she can now spread her vision across the rest of the city.

I wansn't a big katz fan for a few years but recently I find him not so bad especially compared to the losers who run against him. Also a new provincial poll came out today and the ndp still lead the pc's by 10 ponts.The ndp has a 20 pont lead in winnipeg why do people keep voting for them?

FRESH!

I look forward to her running and then leaving civic politics, hopefully for good.

Even though she doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, I feel as though the next civic election will turn out like the last. I will vote for Sam Katz out of fear of the Leninist opposition in the form of Marianne Cerilli - or in this case another hyper-left individual that I'm sure will surface in due course.

Lillian Thomas has long been my least favourite Manitoban not currently incarcerated, or under criminal investigation for causing physical, mental or emotional trauma to any man woman or child.

The fact that there is a chance after next year that we'll never see her again in civic politics just brightened my day. My blood boils whenever I think of her, "I'm against development of any kind" comment, in light of the fact she is a city councilor for a major Canadian city. That's akin to a medical doctor claiming they don't believe in medicine or surgery. It's enough to make me scream.

We might actually get to give the boot to Lillian Thomas and Harvey Smith next year. Things are looking up. I imagine Harry Lazarenko will still remain as emperor of the North End.

If Dan Vandal runs for the big chair, we might even see the return of Franco Magnifico. Not bad. Though, I have nothing against Mr. Vandal, I just prefer Mr. Magnifico.

Random tidbit: Two of the three mayoral candidates from Thunder Bay's last election have served time in prison since then, one for drug trafficking and the other for assault. Combined, they got less than 15% of the vote.

Yay ! Go Thomas ! There are still so many neighbourhoods in Winnipeg that are prosperous , lively , and completely oblivious to the blight she could help to spread. There's no time to lose...people are moving into Winnipeg again and we've got to put a stop to it before things start changing !

OMG we agree on something!;)

The last election, Harvey Smith had some decent competition with one candidate. I believe the vote was pretty close. This next election, he may actually lose to a spirited campaign, considering he didn't even mail anything out or campaign period prior to the election.

:haha:

term limits. now.
how can i vote for term limits, and not these boring lifers?

Because...we like them and the direction they have steered Manitoba in.

Why are term limits helpful? They disqualify just as many good incumbents as they do bad ones.

agreed

The reality is, if people don't like a politician, they won't vote for them.

LMAO :haha: ... the funniest post I have read in a while.

Winnipeg is finanlly moving in the right direction and all the socialists are PISSED!! Will wonders ever cease. :rolleyes:

I am glad to see Thomas put her hat into the race. I'll be shocked if Katz doesn't win by a landslide.

I only wished Gerbassi was running, but I think she learnt from Vandal's huge mistake.

I also don't like the idea of term limits. If someone is doing a fine job, wants to continue on, and gets the most votes, then why not? Having to be re-elected is good a enough way to be throw them out if they are no longer perceived to be up to the task.

Of course, Winnipeg pretty much always re-elects incumbents. Doesn't have to be this way, but it is the reality because unfortunately people just don't follow local politics all that closely. However, I would (like to) think that if there was a case of obvious corruption, etc, an incumbent would be defeated.

Anyway, I'm guessing that many here would agree that it was good for Winnipeg that Juba was Mayor for 20 years; rather than having to leave office after, say, eight years.

One main argument for term limits is that politics corrupts elected officials after some time. Maybe true, certainly so on the federal level (ie: Mulroney, Adscam, Harper using an obscene amount of tax dollars for advertising to score political points (what benefit is there in promoting the Economic Action Plan?... I digress)). However, in Winnipeg's case, I'd take a truly independent ethics commissioner (who publicly reports to council, not the CAO) who isn't appointed by the Mayor.

****

Of the current councilors, I think that Wyatt would have the best chance of defeating Katz. Seems to me that Wyatt has been gearing up for it with 'going maverick' and is testing the waters. Nonetheless, the safe money is on Katz; if only because, as I noted above, we usually always re-elect incumbents (mayor and councilors). It has been many decades since an incumbent mayor running for re-election lost.