Four mayoral candidates out after missing nomination deadline

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This article was published 19/09/2022 (731 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ballots will be counted to determine Winnipeg’s next slate of civic leaders in just over a month, but two city councillors and four school trustees have already secured their seats.

Candidates in the Oct. 26 municipal election were required to both register and file their nomination papers before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Those who fail to do the above are disqualified, while approved contestants have an additional 24 hours to withdraw their names, should they change their minds.

At deadline time, one quarter of registered mayoral hopefuls in the crowded race had not fulfilled the requirements to run for the top job at Winnipeg city hall.

Eleven of 15 contestants — Glen Murray, Chris Clacio, Kevin Klein, Scott Gillingham, Rana Bokhari, Jenny Motkaluk, Idris Adelakun, Rick Shone, Shaun Loney, Don Woodstock and Robert-Falcon Ouellette — were listed on the municipal website, which updates in real time as candidates file paperwork.

Desmond Thomas, Jessica Peebles, Govind Thawani and Vincent Gabriele were not.

“It’s not unusual to see a lot of candidates run when the incumbent is not running. (Mayor Brian Bowman is not seeking a third term.) It is unusual to see this many big names, and it makes it an interesting election — but I think it’s also going to be very confusing for the public as they try to navigate and determine who they want to vote for,” said local political scientist Aaron Moore.

The overwhelming number of simultaneous campaigns make it difficult to keep track of who is promising what, added the chairman of the political science department at the University of Winnipeg.

Couns. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) and Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) were the sole candidates to cement their intention to run in their respective wards.

“When I put my name on the ballot the first time, the second time, and again now, I fully expected that there would be other contenders. That is democracy in action. From that perspective, it is disappointing,” Sharma said during a phone call Monday.

“But on the other hand, I’ve worked very hard and it’s not alone — you cannot be successful in this type of role alone.”

Sharma (first elected in 2010) is among only seven city councillor contestants, approximately 16 per cent of the individuals leading a local campaign, who are women. She attributes her success at city hall to her “positive connections” with residents and community organizations.

When reached Tuesday, Chambers said he plans to continue door-knocking and talking to his ward residents throughout the campaign in order to “bring their voices back to city hall.” So far, he said many constituents have raised concerns about the mental health and addictions crisis, homelessness, street renewal, adequate 311 service and police dispatch times.

“I don’t want to become complacent by any stretch. It’s not about me. It’s about the voices of this ward that I still continue to need to hear from,” said Chambers, who also serves as chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board.

Among the roster of trustees for 2022-26 will be incumbents Colleen Carswell and Pamela Kolochuk, from the boards in River East Transcona School Division and Louis Riel School Division, respectively. There will also be two new faces: Sheri Irwin in RETSD and Chipalo Simunyola in LRSD.

As far as Moore is concerned, an acclamation at any level is unfortunate.

“For an effective democracy, you want to have an election — at a minimum, to force the incumbent (leader) to actually defend what they’ve been doing for the last four years. Otherwise, you’re not really able to hold them accountable for their past actions,” said the political scientist.

Moore cited the “incumbency advantage” and growing scrutiny of politicians on social media, including cruel personal attacks, as the main reasons fewer people are putting their names forward.

Political parties are effective at ensuring the acclamation phenomenon does not happen because they typically want to run full slates of candidates, he said. At the same time, Moore indicated the public does not support this option because of the general consensus partisanship should be left out of municipal politics.

While the number of city councillor acclamations is up one from 2018, the total number of trustees in the metro region who have automatically won seats dropped by five.

Three candidates in the Winnipeg School Division were acclaimed during the last election. This year, the number of registrants has more than doubled, setting up nine different competitive races in the district.

Jennifer Chen, who is not running for re-election in WSD because she is pursuing provincial politics under the Manitoba NDP banner, said she was pleasantly surprised to see so many new names.

Chen attributes the uptick in interest to the province’s controversial and now-defunct education reform bill — which sparked public awareness about the work of school boards, citizens who are looking for change, and residents who want strong leaders to speak for their communities.

“There were a lot of discussions about Bill 64, initiated by educators and community groups (throughout 2021),” she wrote via text Tuesday. “People learned more about the role of school trustee, which is a fundamental part of our democracy. And that generated a lot of interest.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie