Environment, Winnipeggers’ health on outdoor enthusiast’s priority list

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This article was published 29/09/2022 (720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rick Shone is hoping to be the mayoral candidate helping Winnipeggers who feel they are up a creek without a paddle when it comes to civic politics.

That’s because Shone, as the owner of Wilderness Supply, has sold a lot of paddles. And canoes, kayaks and other outdoor supplies.

The 45-year-old businessman wants to take his entrepreneurial know-how — and his love of the outdoors — to the mayor’s chair after next month’s civic election.

“I’ve always been an outdoors person, I grew up just outside the city,” he said. “I did camping trips with my dad and, then, later with fellow students.

“I’ve also gone on two canoe trips that ended up in Hudson Bay. They were 800 to 1,000 kilometres each. This was even before I knew Wilderness Supply existed.”

It’s also why Shone’s campaign includes promises that take the environment and health into consideration. As the slogan says on his campaign website, he is “A New Voice For Winnipeg and a New Vision for Winnipeg.”

Shone wants to eliminate rules mandating a minimum number of parking spots when a building is constructed because he says it has resulted in large swaths of area downtown devoted to surface lots, citing studies that show the more parking there is, the more cars there are.

That’s at odds with achieving Shone’s climate-change objectives, which include more bike lanes and spaces for pedestrians.

“We need to encourage more people (to get) out,” he said. “And we need to increase the transportation options for people.”

He has also promised to have a new spray pad constructed somewhere in the city every year, one of the planks in his plan to implement “many health and social benefits for Winnipeggers of all ages.”

He intends to introduce a requirement for new subdivisions to include spray pads, the cost of which would be covered by the developers.

Shone is concerned about the amount of debt the city has racked up and he feels city council hasn’t done enough to contain it.

“It is almost as if council has accepted it and have no real new ideas,” he said. “We need to be a lot better managers of our money so we don’t get deeper and deeper into debt… we have to make sure the debt is managed. You have to pay it off sooner or later.”

In recent weeks, Shone has also said he wants to see Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth replaced, upgrade 311 services and have libraries open seven days a week.

And, just minutes after vowing to increase active transportation and anti-theft measures, Shone had his own bicycle stolen when he popped into his business for a few minutes.

“I’m going to say it was a dumb thing on my part, but in reality, I shouldn’t have had my bike stolen, either,” he said after the theft at the end of August. “The timing was a little odd.”

Shone’s road to business ownership took a winding path — you could say it was a portage. But, in the end, he not only had a partner in business, but a partner in life.

He was born at St. Boniface Hospital and grew up in Cook’s Creek. His dad owned Gateway Plumbing and Heating before becoming superintendent of maintenance in the St. Vital School Division. Shone went to school in both Selkirk and Winnipeg.

He graduated from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute before going to the University of Manitoba for a four-year degree in psychology with minors in criminology and sociology.

He decided he needed “more schooling,” but before he went back he pulled out his paddle and went up north to make his way over several rivers and lakes.

Then he enrolled in commerce studies.

“I never finished the commerce degree,” he admits. “I finished Year 3 and then I took a small business course and found I knew more than the professor.”

At about that time, Shone learned the owners of Wilderness Supply wanted to hire someone who, potentially, could take over the business.

Soon he was managing the store and helping the owners open a branch in Thunder Bay. He bought the store in 2008 and, in 2017, he moved it from its longtime home on Ferry Road to Isabel Street.

It’s a good thing he was able to work with the owners to come up with a fair price to buy them out — they became his in-laws.

He has been married to Elysia for 18 years and they have two children, Sam, 13, and Sofia, 11.

And while he didn’t finish his last stab at education, he never lost his drive to get a master’s degree. He is currently working towards one in international relations from King’s College in England. The educational institution has agreed to temporarily defer his thesis.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca