Winnipeg | 2026 Civic election

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by trueviking

I hate Winnipeg.

27% of the vote how does this seem fair

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

How so, by unveiling what an unsavoury douche Murray really is?

Nice to see some good councillors elected and acclaimed in Browaty, Chambers, Lukes, Sharma, Wyatt….

Lol. Devi Sharma is a good councillor? By what metric? Shes a family friend so know her personally, she’s a complete dolt.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cheswick

He seemed like the least big idea candidate of the bunch. We’re going to get another 8 years of bowman like leadership. massive road and police budgets and nothing else to move the city forward. Maybe I’m being pessimistic.

Gillingham seems like a good guy. I would 100% trust him with an extra set of house keys to my place.

But the only "big idea" he really seems to have is building roads. I don't get a lot of vision from him, and that's partly the role I expect the mayor, as a leader, to fulfill.

This is a disappointment for sure.

Have we stopped caring about downtown? I'm not sure that Gillingham is even going to keep up the pretense that it really matters to him beyond being just another neighbourhood.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

27% of the vote how does this seem fair

Why, you had 11 candidates vying for mayor and he got the most votes, pretty easy to understand actually! What's fair?

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

Gillingham seems like a good guy. I would 100% trust him with an extra set of house keys to my place.

But the only "big idea" he really seems to have is building roads. I don't get a lot of vision from him, and that's partly the role I expect the mayor, as a leader, to fulfill.

This is a disappointment for sure.

Have we stopped caring about downtown? I'm not sure that Gillingham is even going to keep up the pretense that it really matters to him beyond being just another neighbourhood.

The city has spent a lot more than it should on downtown with poor results, with changing demographics in this city maybe more emphasis should be put on areas of the city where people actually want to reside!

Yeah I know that's hard for this crowd to understand!

[esquire]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

The city has spent a lot more than it should on downtown with poor results, with changing demographics in this city maybe more emphasis should be put on areas of the city where people actually want to reside!

Yeah I know that's hard for this crowd to understand!

Actually not an unreasonable comment. I'd like to see a tally of all the public money that has been spent on downtown projects over the last 40 years... North Portage, Manitoba Hydro Place, Convention Centre expansion, MTS Centre, subsidies for private projects... it must surely reach into the billions. And the results are simply not that amazing.

I guess the flipside is that a lot of those things would have been built anyway. North Portage is the only pure downtown redevelopment play I can think of that served no other purpose than to try and give downtown a shot in the arm.

[plrh]

The thing I don't understand is: why did people voted for more of the same if they were unhappy with the way things are? Oh well, democracy in action.

[trueviking]

How do you mute someone on this forum?

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by plrh

The thing I don't understand is: why did people voted for more of the same if they were unhappy with the way things are? Oh well, democracy in action.

What really gets to me is people who travel to other cities, complain about how Winnipeg isn't as progressive, blah blah blah, then come back and vote for city councillors/mayors who will potentially keep things the same. So clearly they are all talk and no action.

I put a huge amount of blame on those people for election outcomes like this.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by plrh

The thing I don't understand is: why did people voted for more of the same if they were unhappy with the way things are? Oh well, democracy in action.

At the end of the day only 27% of people who voted, voted for gillingham. And the voter turnout was shockingly low for a non-incumbent mayoral election. It seems like no candidate really motivated the electorate. By the number of votes to % reported, less than 200,000 people cast ballots. That’s out of 520k eligible voters. We’re talking less than a 40% voter turnout.

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by esquire

Gillingham seems like a good guy. I would 100% trust him with an extra set of house keys to my place.

But the only "big idea" he really seems to have is building roads. I don't get a lot of vision from him, and that's partly the role I expect the mayor, as a leader, to fulfill.

This is a disappointment for sure.

Have we stopped caring about downtown? I'm not sure that Gillingham is even going to keep up the pretense that it really matters to him beyond being just another neighbourhood.

It really does seem like the vast majority of mayoral/councillor candidates have given up and now only focus on suburban priorities. Well, guess where the problems of the city centre will migrate to if left unchecked at length? Then what? People like this don't seem to think of the bigger picture and are also a huge part of the problem.

[plrh]

Originally Posted by cheswick

At the end of the day only 27% of people who voted, voted for gillingham. And the voter turnout was shockingly low for a non-incumbent mayoral election. It seems like no candidate really motivated the electorate. By the number of votes to % reported, less than 200,000 people cast ballots. That’s out of 520k eligible voters. We’re talking less than a 40% voter turnout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_mayoral_elections_in_Winnipeg

I agree completely.
Take a look at this. Stephen Juba got 89% of the vote. Twice. Even Bil Norrie got over 70% on 3 occasions. WTF? Putin could learn a thing or two from these guys.

This election was essentially a four way tie. I hope at least my backlane will get rebuilt.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

The city has spent a lot more than it should on downtown with poor results, with changing demographics in this city maybe more emphasis should be put on areas of the city where people actually want to reside!

Yeah I know that's hard for this crowd to understand!

Like they’ve been doing in Southwest Winnipeg for the last 4-5 decades with middling results as well?

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by cheswick

At the end of the day only 27% of people who voted, voted for gillingham. And the voter turnout was shockingly low for a non-incumbent mayoral election. It seems like no candidate really motivated the electorate. By the number of votes to % reported, less than 200,000 people cast ballots. That’s out of 520k eligible voters. We’re talking less than a 40% voter turnout.

Yep this is the problem. I’m not mad at the people who voted even if they did for someone that I don’t particularly like. It’s the assholes that claim they hate Winnipeg so much yet are too lazy, stupid, and so disassociated with reality they can’t even bother to vote in the election that will have far more impact on their quality of life compared to a federal election.

Looking at voter turnouts in other election the state of democracy in Canada is just in a terrible shape right now. Why do people simply not care anymore?

[biguc]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

The city has spent a lot more than it should on downtown with poor results, with changing demographics in this city maybe more emphasis should be put on areas of the city where people actually want to reside!

Yeah I know that's hard for this crowd to understand!

Downtown more than pays its own way. All those giant buildings pay way more taxes than suburban houses.

Invest meaningfully in being a city or keep losing people. It's that simple, Winnipeg. Enjoy another decade of controlled decline.

[Labroco]

A very disappointing day for urbanism and P & M.

[GreyGarden]

Originally Posted by biguc

Invest meaningfully in being a city or keep losing people. It's that simple, Winnipeg. Enjoy another decade of controlled decline.

Well said. Winnipeggers looked around and decided that Ontario and BC can have our young and educated. After last night I definitely don’t have any hope that those numbers will turn around any time soon.

[pspeid]

I really hope I've been wrong about Gillingham, but all I can see is eight more years of stagnation (as Winnipeg mayors tend to get two terms).

It will be interesting to see the city/province dynamic after the next provincial election, if the NDP get in. I'm sure Wab Kinew would be more generous with a political "opponent" than Pallister or Stephanson.

[Sheepish]

Unfortunately Murray has to accept some responsibility. Where was the passion and vision that he communicated in his concession speech? The man would not even commit to making P & M a proper pedestrian corridor. He ran a weak campaign, and managed to 'snatch defeat from the jaws of victory'.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by GreyGarden

Well said. Winnipeggers looked around and decided that Ontario and BC can have our young and educated. After last night I definitely don’t have any hope that those numbers will turn around any time soon.

Based on current trends they’re probably headed to Alberta. And honestly speaking now that Edmonton is more affordable then Winnipeg it’s looking like a very enticing location to relocate for me post graduation.