Winnipeg | 2026 Civic election & City affairs

[esquire]

Originally Posted by wardlow

Murray has been getting all of the scrutiny because he's been the strong frontrunner throughout this campaign. Murray was ahead in the polls by like 20 points when Kives broke the Pembina Institute story... should he have also put the same effort into look for dirt on all candidates at the time?

And yes other campaigns are going to try and bring down the frontrunner. I believe they call this electoral politics (sp?). Unlucky for Murray that Gillingham's campaign just happens to have an advisor who is a walking encyclopedia of Winnipeg politics of the last 30 years... a guy who practically has all of the Clerk's Decision Making Information System memorized.

Meanwhile Murray's campaign has... Braydon Mazurkiewich?

No question that Murray is in the crosshairs because he's leading in the polls. But on social media I just keep reading reasons why Murray is a Bad Guy and did something in 1999 that is inconsistent with his current position, etc. I wish there was as much of an effort put into elaborating a persuasive, coherent vision for the city as there is in attempting to take down the front runner.

In spite of his personal flaws and shortcomings, Murray's vision for the city is easily the best I've heard among the mayoral candidates. The issue is whether he has too much baggage to make it happen. I'm not convinced that he does.

[Hecate]

This conversation is funny… if it was 2006 and Murray was running again after losing his federal bid, I’d say yes, vote for him. But it’s 2022, he quit in 2004 for greener pastures, lost out on that. So he left, got a new job and quit the first chance he got to run for the Ontario provincial liberals. He’s a government hack and an opportunist. Look at his track record since leaving Winnipeg. Decisions and policies made by the liberal government, he helped form, hurt a lot of people in Ontario. This should not be dismissed. Look at his behaviour at the PI, arrogant, sexually abusive, bully, with alcohol issues. Grinding up against his staff… fucking gross. This is behaviour that should not be dismissed. Behaviour that he’s unapologetic for, and he’s been caught lying about. Winnipeggers should demand better than this and until we do nothing in this city will change. Sad to see people here defending Murray.

Same goes for the province. Elect better people. Is heather steffanson and wab kinew seriously the best we can do? Imaging having standards that low.

[esquire]

Murray may be a creepy middle-aged egomaniac. But does the fact that Gillingham has a guy who is good at digging up dirt on him entitle him to the mayor's chair? Despite not articulating a vision that most would find compelling? I would say not. Throughout his career, Murray has demonstrated that he has a good grasp of what a municipal government should strive for. He has an understanding that goes beyond the usual bullshit claptrap of "fix roads, find efficiencies".

It is weird that this mayoral election is turning into a referendum on Glen Murray's personality.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by thurmas

well Murray is putting some new tax increases on a napkin now that in my opinion would just drive more business outside the city:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-mayoral-promises-oct21-1.6625711

After vowing to freeze property taxes, Murray pitches hikes in business, parking, short-term rental taxes

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Glen Murray proposed a package of new taxes and fees on Friday that would raise as much revenue for the city as a 4.9-per-cent property-tax hike.

Murray promised Friday to bring in new measures that together, would bring in $33.2 million next year.

While he was taking part in a mayoral debate in front of an audience of business leaders, Murray proposed to raise an additional $13 million by adding one per cent to the city's business tax.

"That would cover more, or as much as a residential property tax," Murray said in a scrum following the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event at RBC Convention Centre.

In a statement published on his campaign website, Murray also promised to raise $9 million by levying a 25-cent tax on commercial parking spaces every day.

This pledge is identical to a measure promised by mayoral candidate Shaun Loney on Oct. 10 and would require the province to amend legislation.

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Loney proposes 25-cent daily fee on commercial parking spaces
Murray also pledged to raise $8 million through development fees and another $3.2 million by applying a 10-per-cent tax on short-term rentals.

The revenue measures were announced two days after Murray promised a property-tax freeze.

I 100% agree with the idea to put a fee on commercial parking spots, with the caveat that it includes removing the parking minimums that cause these businesses to have such massive parking lots in the first place.

Businessess should decide by themselves how much parking they need to provide their customers not some outdated method of a stall per a certain sq ft of commercial space. And for certain businessess and areas that don’t want to pay too much for a parking tax like big box centres and shopping malls it could open up opportunity for high density development on said parking lots which would help make the area be more walkable and vibrant.

Short term rentals like AirBnB are also a plague in terms of housing affordability. Especially in a city like Winnipeg that doesn’t get much tourism at the moment.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by thurmas

well Murray is putting some new tax increases on a napkin now that in my opinion would just drive more business outside the city:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-mayoral-promises-oct21-1.6625711

After vowing to freeze property taxes, Murray pitches hikes in business, parking, short-term rental taxes

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Glen Murray proposed a package of new taxes and fees on Friday that would raise as much revenue for the city as a 4.9-per-cent property-tax hike.

Murray promised Friday to bring in new measures that together, would bring in $33.2 million next year.

While he was taking part in a mayoral debate in front of an audience of business leaders, Murray proposed to raise an additional $13 million by adding one per cent to the city's business tax.

"That would cover more, or as much as a residential property tax," Murray said in a scrum following the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event at RBC Convention Centre.

In a statement published on his campaign website, Murray also promised to raise $9 million by levying a 25-cent tax on commercial parking spaces every day.

This pledge is identical to a measure promised by mayoral candidate Shaun Loney on Oct. 10 and would require the province to amend legislation.

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Loney proposes 25-cent daily fee on commercial parking spaces
Murray also pledged to raise $8 million through development fees and another $3.2 million by applying a 10-per-cent tax on short-term rentals.

The revenue measures were announced two days after Murray promised a property-tax freeze.

So long as Murray doesn't go back to his early 2000s stance of putting more fees and levies on most city services to raise revenue. He didn't want to run again after he put all that junk forward and got attacked on it profusely.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

Murray may be a creepy middle-aged egomaniac. But does the fact that Gillingham has a guy who is good at digging up dirt on him entitle him to the mayor's chair? Despite not articulating a vision that most would find compelling? I would say not. Throughout his career, Murray has demonstrated that he has a good grasp of what a municipal government should strive for. He has an understanding that goes beyond the usual bullshit claptrap of "fix roads, find efficiencies".

It is weird that this mayoral election is turning into a referendum on Glen Murray's personality.

Murray's middle-aged if the life expectancy is 110.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Murray's middle-aged if the life expectancy is 110.

45 to 65, so he qualifies.

[🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁]

Originally Posted by esquire

I mean, I am far from being a political insider. But anyone who has spent more than a few weeks on Winnipeg Twitter will have a pretty clear understanding of who exactly has a detailed knowledge of Murray's past misdeeds. He isn't exactly subtle about it.

I am not sure who you are referring to exactly, but I remembered seeing the thread below on Twitter. An attempt to dig up dirt from university student council days.

You know, I recall getting handed a campaign flyer in Paris for a candidate from Emmanuel Macron's party. There were 4–5 pages of detailed policy proposals about the city and region – economic, environmental, social policies, etc. I did not necessarily even agree with all of them, and he actually ended up losing if I recall correctly. But I was impressed by the substantive, thoughtful platform he was putting forward.

As mentioned before, I personally feel uncomfortable about some of the alleged behaviour of Murray. Obviously the local media has now covered that very extensively, and I don't know how it will all play out. But Winnipeg faces big issues, by the sounds of it, and deserves more than these kinds of tactics.

If it's not Murray due to his failings, fine, but the issues go beyond that so find someone else who has a vision to transform the city for the better.



- https://mobile.twitter.com/Diane_Dyson/s...Om_T8UF2IuZk3gUfYK41LJJn0eVA72zZbqTTo57k

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Hecate

This conversation is funny… if it was 2006 and Murray was running again after losing his federal bid, I’d say yes, vote for him. But it’s 2022, he quit in 2004 for greener pastures, lost out on that. So he left, got a new job and quit the first chance he got to run for the Ontario provincial liberals. He’s a government hack and an opportunist. Look at his track record since leaving Winnipeg. Decisions and policies made by the liberal government, he helped form, hurt a lot of people in Ontario. This should not be dismissed. Look at his behaviour at the PI, arrogant, sexually abusive, bully, with alcohol issues. Grinding up against his staff… fucking gross. This is behaviour that should not be dismissed. Behaviour that he’s unapologetic for, and he’s been caught lying about. Winnipeggers should demand better than this and until we do nothing in this city will change. Sad to see people here defending Murray.

Same goes for the province. Elect better people. Is heather steffanson and wab kinew seriously the best we can do? Imaging having standards that low.

Good post, we seem to elect or want to elect a lot of failed, unsavoury individuals here in Manitoba!

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by 🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁

I know that it takes more effort than spewing out empty one-liners, but can you actually provide some evidence that he "pretends to be an urbanist"?

Whatever your other critiques of him, and I certainly have critiques of him myself, can you please provide evidence (for once) that he is pretending to be an urbanist?

And didn't you just post this:

"In a city of 850K when you only have 10-15K living downtown maybe some politicians realize that not everything is all about downtown all the time 24-7!

A vibrant downtown is essential but it isn't the end all like some here believe!"

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9767965&postcount=869

Is that your starting point for judging whether someone is an urbanist?

By the way, I know, I know: I'm a deluded, woke lefty and Trudeau-loving idiot and dope for daring to ask such a question. That's democracy for you.

So now that we've got that out of the way, you can answer the question and provide real, substantive evidence as well as outlining your own urbanist vision for WPG. Thx.

Good luck on Tuesday Glen!

[🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Good luck on Tuesday Glen!

Well, what a surprise. You weren't able to answer a simple question. 😂

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by 🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁

Well, what a surprise. You weren't able to answer a simple question. 😂

Don’t respond to rubes with under 1000 posts! Sorry Glen

[(sub)urban]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

I 100% agree with the idea to put a fee on commercial parking spots, with the caveat that it includes removing the parking minimums that cause these businesses to have such massive parking lots in the first place.

Businessess should decide by themselves how much parking they need to provide their customers not some outdated method of a stall per a certain sq ft of commercial space. And for certain businessess and areas that don’t want to pay too much for a parking tax like big box centres and shopping malls it could open up opportunity for high density development on said parking lots which would help make the area be more walkable and vibrant.

Short term rentals like AirBnB are also a plague in terms of housing affordability. Especially in a city like Winnipeg that doesn’t get much tourism at the moment.

Well for what its worth, (as far as I'm aware) Loney is the only candidate who included removing parking minimums in his platform. I really think people are too quick to dismiss Loney at the moment, his platform is easily the most urbanist (and unlike Murray, he actually costed his platform out with a simple property tax increase...)

Does anyone know if there will be any more poll results released ahead of election day? I'd be kind of annoyed if I have to make my vote based off of polls from like 2-3 weeks ago...

[thurmas]

really baffled no probe research polls out this past month pretty lame.

[thurmas]

from driving around st norbert fort richmond and st vital today while doing my errands only saw 1 Murray sign in suburbia. Klein and Gillingham had the most saw a sprinkling of Motkaluk signs. Murray will need to sweep the core, north end and river heights and fort rouge to win I guess. St Vital, St Boniface, Transcona Charleswood, St James and Waverly Heights-Saint Norbert will be a Gillinhgam-Klein battle primarily.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by (sub)urban

Well for what its worth, (as far as I'm aware) Loney is the only candidate who included removing parking minimums in his platform. I really think people are too quick to dismiss Loney at the moment, his platform is easily the most urbanist (and unlike Murray, he actually costed his platform out with a simple property tax increase...)

Does anyone know if there will be any more poll results released ahead of election day? I'd be kind of annoyed if I have to make my vote based off of polls from like 2-3 weeks ago...

Yeah just a simple tax increase during a time of record inflation!

Anyone advocating for tax increases without figuring out efficiencies and cost cutting, reigning cost overruns on just about every project and prioritizing all civic spending has no business running!

And yeah that includes Gillingham!

[cllew]

Originally Posted by thurmas

really baffled no probe research polls out this past month pretty lame.

Maybe times are tough and nobody wants to pay them to do another one? I don't think they eat the cost of doing them on their own.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by cllew

Maybe times are tough and nobody wants to pay them to do another one? I don't think they eat the cost of doing them on their own.

i guess they had only enough money for the provincial poll they did last month pretty weak. election just 4 days away and no major poll during the weekend for voters to see on a weekend where they will likely make their decision to vote this week.

[🌳🌱🌿🌴🍁]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Don’t respond to rubes with under 1000 posts! Sorry Glen

No rr, we both know you didn't respond because you're intellectually incapable. 😂 And then you tried to insult me and invented a strange rule which you proceeded to break in your next post. 🙃

You're such a dork; it's great! 😂🍿

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by thurmas

from driving around st norbert fort richmond and st vital today while doing my errands only saw 1 Murray sign in suburbia. Klein and Gillingham had the most saw a sprinkling of Motkaluk signs. Murray will need to sweep the core, north end and river heights and fort rouge to win I guess. St Vital, St Boniface, Transcona Charleswood, St James and Waverly Heights-Saint Norbert will be a Gillinhgam-Klein battle primarily.

I wouldn’t take signage as any type of poll. Over the years I’ve noticed there’s really no correlation between the number of signs up and winners of elections. Back when I lived in transcontinental I remember Russ Wyatt hardly had any signs anywhere and was always winning. Last election in my area there was this one school trustee candidate with signs everywhere. Far more than anyone else. And he didn’t get in. And it’s like 4 of 6 people were elected. lol.