Winnipeg Mayoral Election

[mbrg]

 

Based on everything I have read the best candidate is Falcon but not likely to win.

 

This is my PoV as well, but I can't really vote for him if it means a Bowman win. Bowman's business connections have me leery of a second coming of Katz.

 

 

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the bizarreness of such a statement.  What kind of person finds having a job, being good at it and progressing upwards in life objectionable?  You'd prefer the city was run by someone chronically unemployable?

 

It makes as much sense as dismissing Judy because she's a mom, and you once met a mother who hit her kids.

 

I realize some people in Winnipeg had no real awareness of Katz before he was elected mayor.  They will have heard of his name before because of his links to important things, and not much else.  He was always a smooth talking bundle of smarm playing fast and loose with business deals that could be described as shady.  He won on his affable personality.  He was exactly the same man as mayor as he was before he was mayor.

 

Dismissing Bowman and associating him with Katz because both have had careers?  That kind of narrow-minded thinking, well I hope most of the voters are capable of thinking at a level a lot higher than that, whatever decision they come to.

[bigg jay]

People might be associating the two of them for the simple fact that Katz had no political experience and he was backed by the business community & Bowman has no political experience and is being backed by the business community.  It has nothing to do with with the fact they both had a career.  All of the candidates except maybe Judy, have had a career but they don't have the business connections that Bowman does so they don't get the comparison with Katz.

 

Katz was more well known at the time he 1st ran for mayor and he still got elected...Bowman is much more of an unknown so while I don't necessarily agree with the comparison, I don't blame people for being leery of potentially going down the same path we just went down. 

[The Unknown Poster]

Its one of the silly anti-Bowman sentiments.  I've seen people criticise him for not releasing donation amounts even though he released his donor list.  When I pointed out Steeves refuses to do either the defense was 'well he will when he has to and Bowman is worse for releasing only half his lift than none at all'.  I've seen people accuse Bowman of wanting P&M open to pedestrians because he works in the area, as if no one else in Winnipeg wants it open.  i've heard him accused of taking a bribe from Mark Chipman to finance MTSC expansion just because Chipman endorsed him.  The anti-Bowman crowd is truly bizarre.

 

Lets hope he pulls out the upset.

[OldSchoolBlue]

Sanders would make the best mayor, but he's far from the sexy vote - that goes to Bowman right now

 

Anyone but JWL. So, Bowman. 

[mbrg]

People might be associating the two of them for the simple fact that Katz had no political experience and he was backed by the business community & Bowman has no political experience and is being backed by the business community.  It has nothing to do with with the fact they both had a career.  All of the candidates except maybe Judy, have had a career but they don't have the business connections that Bowman does so they don't get the comparison with Katz.

 

Katz was more well known at the time he 1st ran for mayor and he still got elected...Bowman is much more of an unknown so while I don't necessarily agree with the comparison, I don't blame people for being leery of potentially going down the same path we just went down. 

 

And isn't that an interesting statement in and of itself.

 

I don't have a horse in this race; Winnipeg is not the constituency I vote in, but it's silly to pretend that whomever wins will not impact my life.  The goings on of Winnipeg affect all Manitoban's lives.  That's the nature of being the capitol city of the province and home to roughly 75% of the population.  There is tremendous sway.

 

People serve in politics for a variety of reasons.  Some have a vision.  Some want change.  Some want to feel powerful.  Some want to serve for the public good.

 

In the past I would have put Judy in the latter category.  Regardless of how I feel about any person's stance on the political spectrum I normally will always respect them for serving to improve the lives of their constituents.

 

This time around the only feeling I get from Judy is that she's now what I'd classify as a career politician.  She's doing this because this is all she knows.  She used to make a lot of money doing it, now she doesn't, and she'd like to go back to making that taxpayer money.  I don't think she'd make a bad mayor because her intentions are generally good, more like a nothing mayor, happy to go thru the motions and take home a 6 figure salary.  She'll probably win.  The anti-Katz people feel like that should translate to being pro-Judy, and her Dr Seuss-ian name recognition is off the charts.  To me nothing about her campaign has felt like she has a vision for this city, more like she should get the job because she wants the job.  I hope I'm wrong about that feeling, cause I suspect she'll win by about 7 percent.

[Rich]

Looks like Bowman is the new mayor.  Going to be interesting to see what he does in City Hall.

 

Congratulations to our new mayor.

 

Mayor-elect Bowman's lead a shocking 50K with 20 polls remaining. #wpg14

— Bartley Kives (@bkives)

October 23, 2014

[Brandon]

Good on Oulette for gathering a tonne of votes ...  I think he will be a serious contender next time around.

[Mark H.]

It seem Oulette drew some of Judy's votes, while the collapse of Steeves gave more votes to Bowman.  

 

I'm a little stunned, but quite happy to be wrong.

[The Unknown Poster]

Wow. Shocking numbers. Historic collapse by Judy who was utterly rejected by voters tonight.

Gord Steeves gives a classy speech and announces retirement from politics. He really had limited options. He had the chance to drop out gracefully and missed the opportunity. Ended his political career due.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Shocked by the results. Even if you take the last poll which was only a couple days ago as fact that still did not translate as twice as many votes. Even if you say Bowman took votes from Steeves and Oulette took votes from JWL, Bowman still would have won by a large number it seemed.

 

Maybe the posters had it wrong all along.

 

He's good to be mayor for at least 2 terms. Peeps in this town don't vote out mayors.

[Noeller]

So, as a rural Manitoban now living in rural Alberta, I was only following the City of Winnipeg election passively. Didn't get to know the candidates really well. The more I read, now, about Bowman, the more I think I like the guy. Can someone who's more familiar with him fill me in on the guy's platform? What's he all about? I read "Red Conservative" and that was enough to sell me...progressive, but not at the cost of massive tax raises...

[mbrg]

So, as a rural Manitoban now living in rural Alberta, I was only following the City of Winnipeg election passively. Didn't get to know the candidates really well. The more I read, now, about Bowman, the more I think I like the guy. Can someone who's more familiar with him fill me in on the guy's platform? What's he all about? I read "Red Conservative" and that was enough to sell me...progressive, but not at the cost of massive tax raises...

 

What I liked best about him is he did more than go around from PR event to PR event talking about about the easy and obvious things - potholes and crime.  You're taking the tough stance of being opposed to those things?  Shocking.  Him and Oullette were the candidates who were talking about the future of Winnipeg, what it can be at the end of this decade and 2 decades from now.

 

As someone who is always incredibly frustrated at how quickly heels get dug in at any notion of progress in this city, I was thrilled to finally have a candidate (or two) who agrees that we can be more than what we are, rather than just throwing their hands up in the air and crying why aren't we more?

[The Unknown Poster]

Steeves tried to paint Bowman as "more left than Judy".  Even Judy tried to paint him as that.  The anti-Bowman idiots online tried to insinuate (or out and out accuse him) that he was being bought off by big business.

 

Judy tried to deflect her NDP ties being a negative by accusing Bowman of having conservative ties.  It was actually one of the more laughable moments of the CJOB debate.  You could tell Judy had pre-scripted talking points, this being one of them.  But Bowman beat her to the punch by expressing how proud he was to have the support of former Premier Filmon.  Moments later she tried to accuse him of hiding his connections to people like Filmon. 

 

Bowman actually discussed concrete things he intended to do.  When his support rose, he revealed he had a "first 100 days plan".  He openly disagreed with the PST hike but demanded Winnipeg's fair share.  He admitted he'd raise property taxes but only as much as needed (aprox 2%).  He promised to lower the Mayor's salary which really contrasted with Katz who's a millionaire taking a $88,000 severence and judy who argued that they deserved their severence.

 

The only time I thought he made a mistake was the city sales tax idea.  It was ballsy and fresh to suggest something like that, which certainly has merit.  But I knew his opponents would twist it.  Steeves tried to by openly saying Bowman would create a sales tax AND raise property taxes which was a lie.  But by the time Steeves went on the offensive, he was finished in the race anyway.

 

I think Bowman conveyed the message that while he wanted Winnipeg to build big projects that would cost a lot of money, he wanted us to do so in a fiscally responsible way.  I dont think Judy's NDP ties allowed people to take her seriously.  I think people say "Judy wants to build more BRT and will raise our taxes to do it" but also say "Bowman wants to build more BRT but will find a way to do it without drastically raising our taxes".  People trusted Bowman and respected the way he ran his campaign.  They didnt trust or respect Judy.

 

I could be wrong but I didnt hear Judy thank her opponents and she didnt go to Bowman's election night party whereas Steeves and The Falcon both did.  Tells you a lot about the character of these people.  Steeves, in fact, (who I dont like) did exactly what any well-meaning public servent in his position should have done - he basically endorsed the new Mayor during his consession speech.  Very classy move on his part.

[Noeller]

Interesting stuff, guys -- thanks for the info...

[iso_55]

How much did the CJOB "off air" audio clip hurt Wazylicia-Leis with voters? 

[Mark H.]

How much did the CJOB "off air" audio clip hurt Wazylicia-Leis with voters? 

 

It didn't help...but its impact was blown out of proportion by Adler and Cloutier...IMO

[The Unknown Poster]

I think her attitude might have swayed some undecided. I think her remark about the PST increase not affecting winnipeggers was bad too.

But I don't think her support collapsed in the last three days. Maybe with the undecided. But once Steeves self destructed and it became a two horse race Judy's lack of substance and her politics as usual demeanour versus Bowman's sense of fresh vision youth and energy that did it.

[Fraser]

I like the city sales taxe idea. People who live outside wpg for the cheaper taxes but want to come here to shop should have to pay their fair share.

[Mark H.]

I think her attitude might have swayed some undecided. I think her remark about the PST increase not affecting winnipeggers was bad too.

But I don't think her support collapsed in the last three days. Maybe with the undecided. But once Steeves self destructed and it became a two horse race Judy's lack of substance and her politics as usual demeanour versus Bowman's sense of fresh vision youth and energy that did it.

 

I think that's a fair comment.  Judy was done as soon as it became clear that Steeves wasn't going to be a factor in splitting the vote.

[iso_55]

Well, don't know anything at all about Bowman living here in Calgary but I'm glad Wasylicia-Leis didn't win. We don't need opportunistic career politicians who  jump from provincial to federal & back to local politics over the decades running the city. Like Steve Ashton, who was already a career politician at the U of M back in the late 70's as Student Union President when I was a student there, has she done anything else in her life to hold a job? I'm sure that she has some really nice pension money she's taking now unlike most of us.

[Goalie]

It's gonna be interesting when Bowman names THE FALCON the CAO.. I think it's a possibility to happen. Really do. 

[The Unknown Poster]

I believe Judy has never held a job outside politics.

I thought the Falcon as CAO was possible too but he's being pursued by federal and provincial parties right now.

[iso_55]

I believe Judy has never held a job outside politics.

I thought the Falcon as CAO was possible too but he's being pursued by federal and provincial parties right now.

A life long entitled socialist. Doesn't get any worse than that.

[Jacquie]

There are plenty of career politicians from all political parties. What difference does it really make.

[iso_55]

There are plenty of career politicians from all political parties. What difference does it really make.

Someone like Wasylicia-Leis, Ashton & the Conservative loser from Calgary Rob Anders should find a real job to buy a clue. In Anders case that may just be the case.