[wardlow]

Random thoughts:

- If you want a thread to fade away, the last thing you want to do is throw in an unfounded accusation of "racism" (and then keep doubling down on it).

- Unicity came about because the provincial NDP wanted to do something big and new in municipal governance, which Unicity was. Unicity was intended to solve the 'problem' of a very uneven property tax field in the metro area, and fix the logjam that existed between biggest city and it's stubborn Mayor Juba and the Metro Corporation of Greater Winnipeg. For the provincial NDP, Unicity had the added bonus of sticking it to their Tory and pro-business political enemies in the Metro Corp and on a number of municipal councils.

- Metro Winnipeg's pre-Unicity system might have not been working very well at the time, but I don't think a two-tiered municipal governments (a city government and a metro region government) necessarily work poorly as a rule.

- Many in the suburban municipalities worried that Unicity would override their distinct character and things like Resident Advisory Groups (RAGs) were put in place as part of Unicity. This ostensibly lives on in Winnipeg's current community committee system, which basically just enables local councillors to approve or deny development in their ward.

- Almost 50 years later, the distinct differences between municipalities still live on. Ask a person in Transcona if they think of themselves as a Winnipegger or a Transconian. Same goes for St. Vital, St. Boniface, Tuxedo, Charleswood, St. James...

- The pre-Unicity City of Winnipeg boundaries includes some of the most desirable residential areas in the current city, as well as the most economically productive area of land in the province: downtown. If de-amalgamation happened along the old boundaries, the City of Winnipeg would be just fine, fiscally speaking.