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Originally Posted by esquire
Well put regarding both Bokhari and Motkaluk. The words "puppet candidate" are apt regarding the latter.
As for Glen Murray, it will be interesting to see how his campaign is received. Around the time he ran for re-election in 2002, some elements of the local media basically took it upon themselves to run against him, and we ended up with very vocal attacks mainly by Charles Adler of CJOB (which was still a fairly influential news outlet at the time) and the Winnipeg Sun. Of course, Murray overcame that and won, but those outlets were definitely thorns in his side. Things have changed a bit since then and I wouldn't expect them to play a similar role 20 years later. But I wonder whether there will be new sources of strident opposition to Murray... maybe from people on social media?
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Winnipeg was a different place in 2002. Property taxes were relatively high compared to other Canadian cities and population growth was nearly non-existent (but would pick up in the coming years), and so it makes sense that someone challenging the status quo would be challenged by people with more conservative ideas.
Winnipeg has changed a lot since then, and has become much more diverse (13% of people were visible minority in 2001, compared to 28% in 2016, and I'm sure it will be much higher in 2021 when the census data is released). Winnipeg now also has the lowest property tax out of other major Canadian cities, and population has grown by over 130,000 people (20%) since 2001. So while the pandemic did seem to kill a lot of downtown momentum, I see people actively calling for the city to increase scrutiny on police and fire budgets, increase property taxes to fund infrastructure, and better urban planning, more so than ever before I think.
Whether the progressives' votes will outweigh those who don't want change, it remains to be seen. But more and more people want Winnipeg to be better, are tired of the same old problems decade after decade, and seem to be willing to pay to fix issues if the right person comes along - but whether or not we see change this year is anyone's guess at this point.