Winnipeg | 2026 Civic election & City affairs

[Jeff]

he even embraces the fact that he looks like every other white guy and blends in. they might as well have just promoted the CAO to mayor and saved us an election. same thing.

[Wpg_Guy]

Gillingham lists first-term mayoral accomplishments on way to register for Round 2
Joyanne Pursaga
Friday, May. 1, 2026


Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Scott Gillingham and his wife Marla are all smiles after he officially registered his bid to be re-elected to a second term as Winnipeg mayor at city hall, Friday.

Mayor Scott Gillingham says he’s the right candidate to provide consistent leadership for Winnipeg over the next four years, amid affordability and crime concerns.

“I know I have the team and the experience to continue to provide that stable leadership in times that are uncertain,” said Gillingham.

The incumbent candidate spoke with reporters Friday afternoon, just before registering his bid to be re-elected to a second term as mayor.

Gillingham credited the first city council he led with taking action on several long-standing issues, such as furthering work on the North End sewage treatment plant upgrade, the redevelopment of Portage Place and the reopening of Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrians.

“We have made a lot of progress in this first term, as a council. I think I’ve led decisions that (had) been held up for years,” he said.

While incumbent Winnipeg mayors have proven tough to beat in the past, Gillingham faced criticism last year for backing off some 2022 election promises.

He initially said he would respect the results of a 2018 non-binding plebiscite in which 65 per cent of Winnipeggers voted “no” to reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians.

But the historic intersection — blocked off to pedestrians forced underground to cross the street since 1979 — reopened last June, several weeks after Gillingham declared an estimated $73 million to repair the concourse below was far too expensive.

The mayor also promised to raise property taxes by 3.5 per cent per year but levied a 5.95 per cent increase, marking Winnipeg’s largest annual tax hike since the 1990s.

Two other major fee hikes took effect April 1, 2025, when the annual per-home garbage fee rose to $254 from $93, and the typical home’s sewer rate increased by $18.67 per month, or $168.03 for the rest of that year.

On Friday, Gillingham said those changes allowed the city to raise much-needed revenue to fund sewage treatment projects, transit security officers, firefighters and police officers.

“As a council, we have had the courage finally to make the decisions to raise the revenue needed for the city, to make sure that we are adding more public service…. All of that costs money at a time when costs for everybody, including the City of Winnipeg, are going up,” he said.

Gillingham declined to offer any hint on the level of future garbage fees or property taxes if he’s re-elected, though he committed to releasing a fully costed platform.

He noted city council has approved a plan to freeze water and sewer rates in 2027, if the province and Ottawa each commit to fund one-third of the cost of the final phase of the overall $3.1-billion North End sewage treatment plant upgrade.

The mayor said city council will continue work to improve the transit system, calling the route network criticized by many riders a “bold” choice that will help prepare Winnipeg for the future.

He said there will be more work to boost public safety.

In 2022, Gillingham won 27.5 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating second-place contender Glen Murray, who finished with 25.3 per cent.

Murray, who served as Winnipeg’s mayor from 1998 to 2004, said Friday that he will not enter the 2026 mayoral race.

The former mayor now divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and said he is currently focusing on work related to artificial intelligence and affordable housing.

Former city councillor and provincial cabinet minister Kevin Klein, who claimed third place in the 2022 election, did not respond to requests for comment.

Social enterprise expert Shaun Loney, the fourth-place mayoral candidate in 2022, previously confirmed he will not run again.

Christopher Clacio was the first person to register a mayoral bid on Friday morning; he received less than one per cent of the 2022 vote, as did Don Woodstock, who has also said he plans to run again this year.

Mayoral candidates can register until Sept. 22.

Most of Winnipeg’s 15 city councillors say they plan to seek re-election, though John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry), Emma Durand-Wood (Elmwood-East Kildonan), Brian Mayes (St. Vital) and Russ Wyatt (Transcona) say they are still considering their options.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) did not respond to requests for comment.

Candidates can register to run for city councillor positions between June 30 and Sept. 22.

Voters can also expect two key election changes.

The city will replace paper voter-registration records that required workers to manually strike off names and, instead, employ electronic poll books, which were used during advance voting in both 2018 and 2022.

“Electronic poll books are expected to make the voting process on election day quicker and easier. They also allow for eligible voters to cast their ballot at more locations in their ward,” city spokesperson Tamara Forlanski said in an email.

Election day is Oct. 28.

Winnipeg Free Press

[CoryB]

MODS, instead of breathing life back into what was the 2022 Winnipeg Civic Election thread can we lock this and get a fresh one for 2026 please?

[wags_in_the_peg]

and we have our first fringe candidate Chris Clacio, ran in 2022, works at Superstore as a clerk

[Wpg_Guy]

City’s election history suggests Gillingham won’t have to break a sweat on way to second term
Dan Lett - Opinion
Monday, May. 4, 2026


RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Scott Gillingham, with his wife Marla, leaves City Hall on Friday with a box of documents after officially registering for the civic election in October.

Is it over before it’s even really begun?

Last week, Mayor Scott Gillingham surprised no one when he officially registered as a candidate for the mayoral election in the fall. Not to completely disregard the importance of the democratic process, but history in this city has shown us that Gillingham is almost certainly headed to re-election.

The last time an incumbent Winnipeg mayor lost an election was 1956, when then-MLA Stephen Juba defeated George Sharpe. Juba went on to become one of Winnipeg’s longest-serving mayors; Sharpe was best known for using his two years in office to rid Winnipeg of its streetcars, a decision that public-transit supporters rue to this day.

How powerful is incumbency in this town? Although Juba beat Sharpe by only 1,900 votes, over the next 20 years in office, Juba never received less than 70 per cent of the popular vote.

That incumbent dominance continued for the mayors who followed Juba. The most hotly contested mayoral elections were, in general, those that did not involve an incumbent: Susan Thompson in 1992 (39 per cent support); Glen Murray in 1998 (50 per cent support); Sam Katz in 2004 (42 per cent support); Brian Bowman (47 per cent support); and Scott Gillingham in 2022 (27 per cent support).

The inevitability of Gillingham’s re-election should not prevent us from asking whether he deserves a second term. After looking at the broad strokes of his first three years in office, the answer is, yes.

When Gillingham moved into the mayor’s office in 2022, he inherited a city that had been — like all major urban centres across the world — ravaged by COVID-19. Adding to Gillingham’s misery was a provincial government led by Progressive Conservative premier Brian Pallister who drastically reduced financial support to the city.

There is an argument here that few if any Winnipeg mayors have, in their very first term, faced such an array of existential challenges. And while he cannot declare victory over any one of those challenges, Gillingham can certainly point to some positive achievements.

Among the highlights the mayor self-identified was movement on the completion of the interminable North End sewage treatment plant, the redevelopment of Portage Place and the reopening of Portage and Main to pedestrians.

It is the last of those accomplishments that demonstrates the positives that Gillingham brings to the mayor’s office.

City hall had tied itself in knots over reopening Portage and Main, with former mayor Brian Bowman essentially abandoning an issue he had campaigned on when seeking his own re-election. A hastily imposed 2018 plebiscite that turned a thumb’s-down to the project further tied the city’s hands.

Gillingham applied a sensible and practical lens to the issue. When it was learned the cost of repairs to the underground concourse — which would require tearing apart the intersection at street level and cause four or five years of miserable traffic issues — had risen to uncomfortable heights in the neighbourhood of $73 million, he built support on council for the removal of the barriers and a return to pedestrian crossings.

Some Winnipeggers likely still disagree with his decision. But a year on, the reopened intersection is a lightning rod for selfies, not grievances about traffic.

The mayor did not highlight the decision that he and council made to raise property taxes by 5.95 per cent this year, but there is an argument that this was, again, a sign of strong leadership. The city needed the money and past, politically expedient property tax freezes did way more long-term harm than good.

Those two decisions reveal a mayor committed to the right decisions, not the expedient decisions. In fact, there really is only one politically expedient mark on Gillingham’s first-term resumé: the odd and vague campaign for bail law reform.

Last year, when concerns about allegedly lax bail laws reached a fevered pitch, Gillingham began issuing bulletins about particularly egregious cases where it appeared the justice system was catching and then releasing dangerous, repeat offenders.

The problem was — and remains — that Gillingham didn’t have any tangible ideas on how to reform bail. He only sought to amplify the growing public concern that dangerous criminals were being indiscriminately released into the community to inflict more harm.

There’s a problem with that narrative: notwithstanding anecdotal incidents, the available data shows it’s tougher to get bail now than ever before and that our jails are overflowing with people who have not been convicted of a crime.

Gillingham is a politician and it is admittedly opportunistic to criticize him for engaging in politics. The people we elect to public office understand they need to occasionally echo, perhaps even pander to, the issues that people are concerned about. Even when those “issues” are not a fair reflection of reality.

The analysis of Gillingham’s first term is not an slam-dunk argument for re-election. It is an acknowledgement he has a case to make in seeking a second term.

You will be able to see just how strong a case when we start logging in challengers for the mayoralty. I could be wrong, but the smart money says that few if, any, serious contenders step forward.

Which is why, barring some weird and unforeseen development, we’re going to have four more years of Gillingham. Which, all in all, might not be the worst outcome.

Winnipeg Free Press

[The Jabroni]

Unless we have someone who is a standout and progressive candidate, this could virtually be an incumbent vote for Gillingham.

It's still way too early obviously. Let's see who else besides Gillingham and Clacio are throwing in their hat.

I swear, if it ends up being the "Usual Suspects" of candidates such as Klein, Woodstock, Mike V, and god forbid Patty A running for mayor, we might as well give Gillingham the 2nd term.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by The Jabroni

Unless we have someone who is a standout and progressive candidate, this could virtually be an incumbent vote for Gillingham.

It's still way too early obviously. Let's see who else besides Gillingham and Clacio are throwing in their hat.

I swear, if it ends up being the "Usual Suspects" of candidates such as Klein, Woodstock, Mike V, and god forbid Patty A running for mayor, we might as well give Gillingham the 2nd term.

I have not really noticed anything out of the ordinary that Gillingham has or has not done for the city. After the Katz years, I can tolerate any mayor.

[bomberjet]

Gillingham is as bland as Bowman. Basically nothing happening.

Ill say Katz did get a tonne of things done, in between the grifting, at the expense of transit mostly. Maybe someone can dig up the thread about it.

[WayneShuster]

With the exception of re-opening Portage and Main, Gillingham hasn't done anything of significance or visionary for the city. And no, the widening of Kenaston doesn’t count!

[Wpg_Guy]

Mayor Gillingham has had a lot of under-the-radar accomplishments, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by his leadership. He’s proven far more progressive than his 2022 campaign suggested — one example was the hiring of Hazel Borys as Director of Planning, Property and Development — and his willingness to change his mind when presented with new information has been a refreshing change in politics. His leadership style is focused on asking what Winnipeg will need 30 years from now. Much of his term has been spent on these generational projects, very few of which will show immediate, tangible results. That’s politically bold, because chasing low-hanging fruit is almost always more rewarding in the short term.

One of his most impressive attributes has been the respect earned from all members of council for his collaborative style, something that was lacking in previous administrations and something I’m not sure Glen Murray would have succeeded with. Even his strongest opponents on council have publicly praised his willingness to reach out and work constructively with everyone. His influence has had positive progressive impacts on council members like Jeff Browaty, who voted yes to reopening Portage & Main after spearheading the plebicite back in 2018.

This cooperative approach, I believe, has delivered real momentum for Winnipeg, especially coming out of the pandemic years. Gillingham and council have made revitalizing downtown a priority, renewing CentreVenture’s mandate with a clear focus on development and housing. In 2025, downtown residential building permits hit a 15-year high, with 1,040 new units approved — the highest single-year total on record. Projects like Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, Portage Place, Market Lands, and the Marlborough Hotel have been unanimously supported by council with grants and TIFFs. He also rallied council to support reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians, ending that 46-year blight on downtown — something he had openly opposed in his 2022 campaign.

Council did a lot of hard work to secure the $122.4 million in federal Housing Accelerator Fund money, which proved critical for over 20 housing projects, like The Forks Renewal Corporation’s Site 09 at Railside, that would not have been feasible without it. Additional HAF funds are earmarked for red tape reduction and infrastructure initiatives that will further incentivize denser infill development across the city.

The mayor and council also delivered the largest overhaul of Winnipeg Transit in the city’s history, supporting the redesign to a Primary Transit Network built around more frequent, direct service. While the redesign has been controversial, the system is designed to be adaptable and responsive to the city’s future growth. Service levels and frequency will be adjusted quarterly to improve the overall system. Replacing the Peggo card with a new tap-to-pay fare collection platform, expected in 2027, will also help. This was paired with record investments in the bus fleet, including $239 million committed for new buses, along with the new North End transit garage, which is critical for future Rapid Transit growth.

While not a sexy topic, this council is advancing the North End Water Pollution Control Centre upgrade — the largest and most complex capital project in Winnipeg’s history, with a total cost now exceeding $3.2 billion. Without these upgrades, the plant would reach capacity between 2030 and 2032, effectively halting new population and economic growth in the city. The mayor has been tirelessly lobbying the federal and provincial governments to contribute their share for the final phase.

Council passed the most ambitious zoning reforms in Winnipeg’s history — allowing as-of-right duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on most residential lots city-wide, along with higher-density development at mall sites and along major corridors — with very little public backlash. During the public consultation phase, some councillors admitted they were hesitant to attend public information sessions without increased security, citing fears from the anti-15-minute-city crowd. The rezonings passed anyway, and the sky hasn’t fallen, contrary to what Councillors Orlikow and Mayes warned their constituents. Work continues on this front: the city is now undertaking a full rewrite of the two zoning bylaws (downtown and rest of the city) into one single, modern, unified bylaw, funded through the HAF. This will be the first complete overhaul of these bylaws in over 20 years. The goal is to create clearer, more user-friendly rules that better implement the long-term vision set out in OurWinnipeg 2045. A Council-ready draft is targeted for 2028.

All that effort is starting to show results. Winnipeg’s housing starts have been strong lately. In 2025, the city hit 4,993 starts — up 12.3% from 2024 and the second-highest annual total on record. The four-year stretch from 2022 to 2025 was the strongest in the city’s history according to CMHC data. So far in 2026, the first quarter saw 1,216 starts, a 24.3% jump from the same period in 2025, beating the national increase of 8.6%.

Gillingham has also been a vocal advocate for federal bail reform. He’s publicly pushed for Bill C-14, which would expand reverse onus provisions for repeat violent offenders, arguing that the current “catch and release” system is undermining public safety. He has testified before both House and Senate committees, calling for a more rational approach to bail for those with repeated serious offences. We’ve all seen the headlines: Winnipeg police arrest violent criminals, only to see them released on bail shortly after. His advocacy here is a step in the right direction.

I understand the mayor’s initiatives on the Kenaston and Chief Peguis Trail projects. The approved funding to date has laid the groundwork for these to be shovel-ready in the future. While I don’t support those initiatives right now and doubt other levels of government have the appetite to fund such expensive road projects, we’ll see how they develop over the next four years. That said, there are far more urgent infrastructure needs, including widespread road renewal, the Arlington Bridge, the deteriorating Louise Bridge, and the Rapid Transit master plan — starting with the downtown corridors project.

In the coming term, I’d like to see continued focus on downtown development, a firmer approach to encampments, targeted safety improvements downtown and city-wide, and a serious push to keep the city clean by tackling garbage and encampment debris.

I believe the current mayor and council have worked well together, delivering many important but lower-profile initiatives that previous administrations neglected. They still have significant work left to complete over the next four-year term. I wouldn’t want to see a major shakeup on council. This group gets a lot done and, in my opinion, has been one of the most productive councils Winnipeg has had in a long time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! W_G

[neutroniks]

Very well said, WG. The amount of attention into revitalizing downtown are at all-time high's because of Gillingham.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Gillingham is as bland as Bowman. Basically nothing happening.

Ill say Katz did get a tonne of things done, in between the grifting, at the expense of transit mostly. Maybe someone can dig up the thread about it.

I'm not a shill for Gillingham in the least, but it's really sad that this is the perspective of some people, that Katz "got more things done" than Gillingham. It shows how little people understand the current economic and fiscal climate, and the lasting negative impacts Katz had on the city's finances.

Katz started from an advantageous position in 2004: Winnipeg had become extremely fiscally conservative in the late 1990s and early 2000s, freezing property taxes, cutting staff (except fire and police), and basically stopped taking on debt, all at the expense of virtually every other service in the city, including roads and recreation/parks but the public didn't seem to mind. As old debt that was at very high interest rates (taken out in the 80s and 90s) got paid off, this freed up a lot of room in the budget and debt ceiling as Katz moved into his second term. Katz could keep property taxes frozen most of his tenure, all he had to do was keep municipal services bare bones and do minimal investments in infrastructure. Again, the public seemed happy with this.

Katz also enjoyed a period of stable economic growth in Winnipeg, barring the 08/09 financial crisis (which didn't affect Winnipeg as bad as other cities). Winnipeg's economy did relatively well coming out of the mid 2000s, and did great between 2009 and 2019. Katz had a lot of economic stability and almost no international crisis that would impact the municipal budget.

By comparison, Bowman had COVID-19 and Russian invasion of Ukraine to deal with, and Gillingham had the tail-end of COVID-19, the massive national population spike and housing crisis, Trump trade war and tariffs, and now the Iran war/oil price shock to deal with. Bowman had the luxury of depleting the city's stabilization reserve during COVID, but Gillingham was left holding the bag trying to replenish it.

Construction and infrastructure prices were also much lower and stable during Katz's tenure, making projects a lot easier to float politically and finance. Gillingham, or any future mayor, doesn't have that luxury.

In short, Katz got an era of economic stability along with lots of fiscal dry powder as major city debt got paid off in the early 2000s. He also got away with heavily cutting the city's public service so as long as he kept police and fire well staffed (relatively speaking). This let him keep property taxes frozen (popular) while doing minimal investment under the guise of "sound fiscal management".

Now, a decade later, we are paying the price of Katz's frozen property taxes and under investment in infrastructure, and Gillingham has to play catch up by raising taxes by modest amounts (other Canadian cities do 5% to 10% all the time, we freak out at 3.5% cause we're mostly illiterate) just so he can do the bare minimum. Debt ceiling has also been nearly reached again (albeit at lower interest rates, so payments aren't too bad) so room to continue investing in major capital projects we should have done 20 years ago is limited.

So anyone who tells you that Katz was better than Gillingham has their head stuck in the sand or they are blinded by nostalgia, or both. The fiscal and macroeconomic realities for both mayor's are significantly different. Honestly, I applaud any politician who can get anything done in the current environment because the macro headwinds combined with how easily outrage and misinformation spreads on social media influencing citizens and voters makes it neigh impossible for society to reach a consensus on how to solve problems these days. Truly sad times.

Fun facts:
- Winnipeg is the only major Canadian city without a development charge, which means when we grow, existing taxpayers have to subsidize the growing areas making it difficult to maintain existing infrastructure.
- If the city's property taxes were closer to the Canadian average, Winnipeg would have roughly $100 million extra every year to spend.
- If Winnipeg had increased property taxes at the rate of inflation instead of freezing it during Katz's tenure, the city could have spent more than $3 billion extra on infrastructure over the last 20 years. The city's budget would also be more than $200 million higher annually than it is now.

That's how bad Katz hamstringed this city's ability to get stuff done, and now everyone in the future has to deal with it. And before people cry "yeah but taxes suck!" - how many potential residents and businesses and investment do you think Winnipeg has passed up because people looked at Winnipeg and went "wow that city has terrible infrastructure and there's nowhere good to go". I'd argue that with proper infrastructure investment, Winnipeg would have grown faster and become more financially stable but instead we chose low property taxes in exchange for a decaying public realm.

[bomberjet]

To be clear. I was in no way comparing Katz and Gillingham. And saying Katz is better.

Katz sure did get a lot of things done. That's fact. Bowman, bland. Gillingham, bland. And that's not a bad thing. I'd rather have bland ho hum than corruption.

I'm still waiting for a Mayor to take on the police force.

[pspeid]

^Except for the "Trumpian" sign off of Wpg_Guy's posting I agree with what he wrote about Gillingham. He has been a pleasant surprise in terms of his focus for the city.

The "he's done nothing" comments don't really seem grounded in reality. As Wpg_Guy wrote, there's been a large uptick in residential, builds and supports for the downtown. The encampment/homelessness issue is one that won't go away in a single term or even two. I think Gillingham genuinely wants to see progress on this issue, but has to deal with the reality of what is allowed by law. High profile projects like Portage Place, Wehwehneh B. and now the Marlborough redevelopment are huge pieces of the downtown puzzle. IMO that's a lot happening in one four-year term.

[CoryB]

I don't think any of the bigger candidates who might run for mayor are going to challenge an incumbent seeking a second term.

I am hearing that multiple council seats could be more hotly contended. Obviously Elmwood-East K after a 2025 by-election is likely to be contested as Emma Durand-Wood has not had a long time to establish herself and other candidates from the by-election could be still relatively organized to contest.

Transcona with Russ Wyatt facing pending criminal charges is surely to draw interest as well.

I have also heard rumblings of discontent with other wards but not sure right now which might see serious contenders emerge.

The other piece to keep in mind is civic elections are often lower stakes game to start building name recognition. Kleins name was on the ballot multiple times before he finally got his first win.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by pspeid

^Except for the "Trumpian" sign off of Wpg_Guy's posting I agree with what he wrote about Gillingham.

lol the sign off was just for you pspeid, I’m glad we could finally agree on something, but not everything!

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

To be clear. I was in no way comparing Katz and Gillingham. And saying Katz is better.

Katz sure did get a lot of things done. That's fact. Bowman, bland. Gillingham, bland. And that's not a bad thing. I'd rather have bland ho hum than corruption.

I'm still waiting for a Mayor to take on the police force.

The point of my post was saying that "Katz sure did get a lot of things done" is a gross oversimplification that attributes too much success to him and ignores the silver platter that was handed to him that made it all possible.

Katz got to start off at the top of the hill because of the hard choices made by previous administrations. And on his downhill ride, he could have been an adult and done modest property tax increases that didn't necessitate the gutting of municipal services and infrastructure, but instead he chose to hand out candy to voters by freezing taxes and doing a select few "major" projects where he could look good cutting ribbons. Really the perfect strategy from a "stay in office as long as possible" perspective when the general electorate has the intelligence of a mosquito.

Gillingham got to start off at the bottom of the hill, trying to correct the course (infrastructure deficit, downtown decay, housing shortage) while the legacy of 4 major economic shocks drag him down.

Boiling Katz's legacy down to "well at least he got stuff done" is an extreme oversimplification that lacks any perspective or awareness.

[Biff]

I didn't vote for Gillingham, but actually like him now.

I find it fairly unfortunate that he is the mayor that got saddled with NEWPCC as all the other Mayors previously kicked that can down the road for someone else to deal with.

This $3b+ project is fairly crippling to this city right now. That money could cover a lot of community centres, transit and road upgrades.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by Biff

I didn't vote for Gillingham, but actually like him now.

Exactly the same for me, i was initially really disappointment he was elected to be honest.

[bomberjet]

I'll just keep my head in the sand.