Chambers decides against mayoral run

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This article was published 06/04/2022 (897 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A prominent city councillor who had considered running for mayor has decided not to.

Coun. Markus Chambers said he won’t compete to replace Mayor Brian Bowman, who isn’t seeking re-election.

“At the end of the day, I am coming up with some health challenges that will hopefully be remediated this summer,” said Chambers, who leads the Winnipeg Police Board and was named chairman of council’s innovation and economic development committee earlier this week. “I suffer with chronic hip pain and I just submitted all my pre-op documents to hopefully have surgery this summer.”

He plans to seek re-election as councillor for St. Norbert-Seine River.

“Some big projects are underway, including transformation at Maple Grove Park (and) transformation at Kings Park,” said Chambers. “There’s a lot of initiatives underway that I’ve started that I want to see through in the capacity of my role as city councillor, should I be re-elected.”

He’s encouraging council colleague Scott Gillingham to run for mayor, stating Gillingham’s experience heading the finance committee and desire for an inclusive city make him well-suited to the job.

“I believe our values and our views are very similar in the sense of what we want to see for this city. He has mentioned on many occasions his interest in equity, diversity and inclusion,” said Chambers.

On Monday, Gillingham resigned as finance chairman and executive policy committee, to concentrate on what he calls a “very likely” mayoral bid.

The St. James councillor has not formally declared his candidacy, however, noting mayoral candidates can’t officially register for the Oct. 26 election until May 1.

The timeline did not prevent Coun. John Orlikow, social enterprise leader Shaun Loney and past mayoral candidate Don Woodstock from confirming they plan to compete in the race.

Coun. Kevin Klein and Jenny Motkaluk, who finished second to Bowman in 2018, have said they are leaning toward mayoral bids.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga