‘I’ve got proven leadership,’ says two-term councillor, pastor

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This article was published 29/09/2022 (775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott Gillingham says the best part of campaigning to become mayor is visiting the doorsteps of Winnipeggers.

During a door-knocking session in Waverley West, the mayoral candidate said meeting residents in their communities has been the highlight of his previous two successful council campaigns and his current mayoral bid.

“This is the part I enjoy the most,” he says while running across a residential street to meet someone who opened the door to speak to one of his volunteers. “You never know what you’re going to get at the door.”

Between short conversations with voters who answer the knock, he notes dogs have chased him off properties “only twice” and that he makes sure to buy a new pair of shoes at the start of every election campaign.

The two-time St. James city councillor is vying to become mayor in his third-straight municipal election, hoping his political experience will help him stand out as the best prepared of 14 candidates who have registered in the race to replace Mayor Brian Bowman, who is not seeking re-election, making the race a wide-open affair.

“I’ve got proven leadership… I’ve run on the front lines as a council leader, (served as) finance chair through a one-in-100-year pandemic. We came out the other side with a credit-rating increase. I know what’s working well in the city right now. I know we need a change right now. And I know the opportunities we need to seize right now so that we can grow our city to be the kind of city that our children can thrive in and grandchildren can thrive in,” Gillingham says during another chat in his Silver Heights home.

He insists he can be seen as an agent of change, despite already serving two terms on council.

“Mayor Bowman has given me a lot of opportunities and I really appreciate that. I think we’ve worked well together. But Brian Bowman and Scott Gillingham are very different people,” he says.

Born in Brandon, Gillingham was raised on a mixed farm outside Carman with one brother and one sister. He explored a few different career goals before entering politics, first moving to Winnipeg after he completed high school.

“Like a lot of young people in Winnipeg and throughout rural Manitoba, hockey was kind of life as a teenager and as a young adult. I played four years in the Manitoba Junior (Hockey) League with a few different teams and I was hoping to get a scholarship. That never worked out,” he says.

Later, he worked as a “general labourer” for Manitoba Hydro but realized his future lay elsewhere about a year into a position that involved climbing tall poles.

“I was at the top of a 50-foot pole somewhere in The Maples, kind of building a cross-arm. It was August and I thought, I don’t want to do this in January,” says Gillingham, who informed his foreman he planned to seek a different career path not long after that experience.

In 1991, he moved to attend Horizon College and Seminary in Saskatoon, where he attained a diploma and met Marla, his wife of more than 25 years. In 2014, he was studying part time toward a master’s degree in theology at Canadian Mennonite University before pausing that process to run for city council.

His education led him to serve as a pastor for more than 20 years, most recently at Grace Community Church in Headingley.

He says many of the responsibilities of being a pastor prepared him to serve as a politician.

“Pastoral work is about serving people and trying to make their lives better. Politics is about serving people and trying to make their lives better. So, I think though there are many differences, there’s a lot of overlap and there is a lot of similarity,” he says.

Gillingham says the hours of work required for both positions helped prepare his family, which includes adult children Hannah and Andrew, for the time commitment involved with a council position.

“The role of faith leadership is one where you’re really giving of yourself and, inevitably, the family plays a part, too, in giving. Multiple evenings out in the week was part of pastoral life, working on Saturday.… It’s kind of part of what our family was used to,” he says.

After his brother was killed in a workplace accident in 1998, he says the tragedy helped him understand the grief of others, which assisted his work as a pastor and at city hall.

“So many people have gotten a call (with) the news that a loved one’s been killed,” says Gillingham, briefly pausing as his voice cracks with emotion. “(My brother) and I were two years apart, we were best friends. I was pastoring at the time. And so, in my life of 20 years of pastoring, you walk with people through the good times and the bad times, the weddings, the funerals. So when you personally experience grief and loss, certainly as a minister, it gave me a greater ability to walk with people through their own loss.”

Gillingham says his interest in helping people extends to politics, where he thinks compassion is required to address key issues facing the city, such as homelessness and addiction, which have become increasingly visible since COVID-19 first began spreading through Winnipeg.

“As mayor, I won’t wait for another level of government to do what ultimately needs to be done. I’ll work in partnership as a mayor with other levels of government and other agencies so we can help other Winnipeggers who need the help,” he says.

Winnipeggers will elect their next mayor and council on Oct. 26.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga