WINNIPEG VOTES: Gillingham holds lead over Murray in mayor voting with only a few polls to come in
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After months of promises, potshots and picture-taking, Winnipeggers have done their civic duty and voted.
With only six polls left to report, Scott Gillingham leads the mayoral race with 27% of the vote and Glen Murray trails closely behind with more than 25%. Of the others getting significant support, Kevin Klein has 14% and Shaun Loney also has 14% of with 245 of 251 polls reporting as of 9:06.
In Transcona, former councillor Russ Wyatt holds an edge with 46% of the vote over current councillor Shawn Nason’s 38%.
Polls are now closed with Winnipeg’s 44th mayor set to be decided. Outgoing mayor Brian Bowman announced he was not seeking re-election, which has led to a wide swath of candidates vying for the mayor’s office.
A total of 15 people registered for mayor, but 11 managed enough signatures to get on the ballot. The perceived front-runner, Glen Murray, is hoping to get his old job back, while councillors Kevin Klein and Scott Gillingham want to swap seats at city hall.
Joining them in the race is former Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette, former Manitoba Liberal leader Rana Bokhari, social entrepreneur Shaun Loney, businessman Rick Shone, 2018 mayoral runner-up Jenny Motkaluk, grocery store worker Chris Clacio, security company owner Don Woodstock and biosystems engineer Idris Adelakun.
Voters have been concerned by a variety of issues during this election: public safety, potholes, and homelessness are on the minds of many.
Aaron Moore, an associate professor of political studies at the University of Winnipeg, says that with no incumbent running there are typically a lot of names on the ballot. However, compared to 2014 — when incumbent Sam Katz wasn’t running — there are more high-profile candidates, Moore said.
“Profile matters a lot in municipal elections,” Moore said. “Because we don’t have political parties, without political parties name recognition is really important.”
What’s intrigued Moore about this race is that no one has yet dropped out and there isn’t an obvious winner.
“I’m not sure that’s really materialized before election time,” he said. “And that’s going to leave things I think, pretty wide open.”
No matter who takes the mayor’s chair following Wednesday’s results, they’ll have to deal with the city’s projected $55.9 million deficit. Winnipeg’s latest projection also shows a $14.7 million transit deficit.
Moore said a candidate like Gillingham is well aware of the financial situation of the city, having served as finance chair. It’s also an issue Klein would keenly be aware of having made numerous remarks about the state of the city’s finances.
“A lot of the other things candidates, those who haven’t been in government for some time, they’re going to find that other plans are kind of for nought when they’re elected because they have to address that immediate problem of revenue,” Moore said.
To bring in more revenue, Moore says the best tool cities and municipalities have are property tax increases along with user fees. Murray, who has pledged to get 1% of the provincial sales tax is something the province doesn’t have a lot of incentive to do, Moore said, adding that Bowman made a similar pledge in 2014.
The Manitoba government has its own financial constraints, which makes it tough for them to hand out 1% of the sales tax to Winnipeg.
“They also run the risk that if the City of Winnipeg asked for it … then every other municipality across Manitoba is going to want that as well,” Moore said.
As people cast their ballots, it may not take a lot of votes to win. In 2014, the last time there was a wide-open mayoral race, 50.23% of the electorate showed up. In 2018, 42% of voters cast a ballot.
“Depending on who turns out in votes, you could still have somebody that wins with a pretty healthy plurality of votes,” Moore said. “We don’t know. I think who votes in this election is going to matter a lot.”
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