A little toponder, a lot to celebrate

Well, another civic election season has come and gone, and I have to say it was a doozy. The most surprising event was the steady climb in support for young mayoral candidate Noah Redden, who started out with just four per cent public support in September but had reached a solid 14 per cent support in October.

On election day, Redden nearly came in second, less than one percentage point behind Kevin Klein, an experienced politician.

Indeed, the 27-year-old’s accomplishment was nothing short of astonishing. Particularly given that his shoestring campaign was given very little coverage — largely, according to one pundit, because he didn’t send out any press releases.

This when Redden’s unwritten press releases were there for everyone to see on Instagram, as he popped up in locations across the city, posting videos about what he hoped to achieve as mayor.

Redden’s was an unconventional, social-media-driven campaign, to be sure, but it was also very effective. One can only imagine where he might have placed in the final election results had he been included in CBC’s televised election debate on Oct. 21.

Then came the shock, just a few days later, that an Abacus Data survey showed Redden running at 14 per cent, putting him in a tie with Mike Vogiatzakis for third place. That was followed a few days later by endorsements from former mayoral candidate Shaun Loney and former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray.

So, what are we to make of all of this?

Well, if you look at who was elected to council, a bit of a pattern emerges. And that pattern clearly demonstrates just how fed up many Winnipeggers are with a status quo, right-of-centre civic government.

People are angry that their property and water and waste tax increases aren’t being spent to maintain inner-city neighbourhood pools, libraries or potholed residential roads, but are instead being spent on new and wider roads to the suburbs.

They’re also fed up with a city council that spends more than $370 million on police services and just $2-to-$3 million on targeted social services for the homeless and addicted.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of Winnipeggers are completely fed up with a new transit system that was launched without hiring sufficient drivers or buying a sufficient number of buses to actually make it work.

Indeed, contrary to what some politicians may believe, Winnipeggers aren’t as dumb as they may think. And they showed that on Oct. 28 by unseating four incumbents and electing one of the most progressive councils we’ve seen in some years — one that includes an unprecedented seven women councillors.

Not all incumbent seats were taken by progressives, but two of them were, including Lora Meseman in Transcona, who defeated not one, but two former councillors, and Natalie Smith’s win over longtime incumbent Ross Eadie in Mynarski.

An environmentalist and community organizer, Smith, like Redden, ran on a community based, compassionate approach to public safety, homelessness and addiction.

The same was true of Meseman, who advocated for collaborative solutions to homelessness and supported community centre youth programs as a way to fight crime — a strategy that’s had significant success in key American cities.

Both candidates were also in line with a majority of Winnipeggers, who believe that the current police-centred, encampment-clearing approach to homelessness and addiction simply isn’t working.

Smith and Meseman are joined on council by progressive incumbents such as Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) and Emma Durand-Wood (Elmwood – East Kildonan), along with urban planners Sara MacArthur (River Heights – Fort Garry) and Jeff Palmer (Fort Rouge – East Fort Garry), two newcomers to council, who bring years of combined experience to the table on community livability, active transportation and low-cost housing.

The only question is how second-term mayor Scott Gillingham — a man who has been primarily focused on policing, new roads and the needs of developers — will respond to this new, more progressive council.

Will Gillingham and staunch supporters, such as Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) and Evan Duncan (Charleswood – Tuxedo – Westwood), continue to champion what has been, for far too long, the Winnipeg status quo?

And where will incumbents Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) and Matt Allard (St. Boniface), along with newcomers Jasmine Brar (Waverley West), Ray Dubois (St. Norbert – Seine River), Greg McFarlane (Old Kildonan, who unseated Devi Sharma), Kelly Ryback (St. James) and Chris Sigurdson (St. Vital), position themselves in what may become a struggle between a conservative executive policy committee and a progressive council?

Well as the saying goes — only time will tell. I can only hope that listening and compromise rule that day, and that we ultimately wind up with a greener, safer and more resilient city.

Erna Buffie is a writer and environmental activist. Read more at www.ernabuffie.com