Mayoral candidate reveals he's homeless, another questioned about arrest

A mayoral candidates' debate in Winnipeg saw a few unexpected turns Thursday, includingone candidaterevealing heis homeless,another encouraging the crowd to applaud a rival on the basis of her genderand yet another coming under attack for being arrested.

Despite all of the fireworks or maybe due to itseveral voters believeBrian Bowman came outthewinner.

"He's the best of what is there," said Liz Cronk, a nurse, after the debate at the Centre CulturelFranco-Manitobain. "Honestly I would like to see a woman as mayor, but I don't vote for a woman just because of her gender. She has to have ideas and [Jenny] Motkaluk's ideas she's been so negative, right from the get-go."

Questions posedat the debate, hosted by the Winnipeg Realtors Association and Winnipeg Free Press, centred on housing and new developments, but much of what candidates said werenow familiarcampaign talking points curbing meth use, improving safety, completing an interior ring road, to name a few.

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But Umar Hayat left the audience a little stunned when he asked people to clap for Motkaluk because she was doing a "tremendous job" running for mayor "as a woman."Motkalukpolitely thanked him.

Filmmaker Ed Ackermanrevealedhe is currently homeless and slept on a floor Wednesday night due to a protracted legalbattle with the city after his home was demolishedin 2010.

Ackerman and Motkalukthen confrontedVenkat Machiraju over his recent arrest for allegedly violating a protection order. Machirajutold the crowdit was personal and his lawyer advised him not to speak about it to the media.

Ackermanthen picked up Machiraju's previous criticism ofMotkaluk for a potential conflict of interest should she be elected mayor.Herbrother owns a prominent Winnipeg construction company which has received millions in road repair contracts.

Motkaluk said the public service awards road repair work, not the mayor.

For some in attendance, the attacks and the revelations during the debate left them unsatisfied.

"Democracy is great, butwhen I look[at the]eight candidates, I think some of them just wouldn't be good mayors," said Cronk.

'Vanity projects' and 'waste' at City Hall

Motkalukfocused the majority of her criticism at Bowman,suggesting the city has become less safe under his leadership and he mismanaged city finances.

"The question I have for the mayor, is this: Which part of our household budget should we take away from our families?" Moktakluk asked, referring to the cost of Bowman's planned annual property tax hikes of 2.33 per centfor the next four years.

"Should it be the hockey fees, should it be our grocery budgets or maybe it should be turning down the heat in order to continue to pay for the vanity projects and waste that we're seeing at City Hall?"

Bowman said the tax increases payfor long-overdue road repairs.

"What we can't afford to do is go back to the toxic, negative-style politics that you're seeing right now, which led us to audits and police investigations," he said.

Bowman blamedmeth addictionin part for the recent increase in crime.

Debate attendeePam St. Godardsaid before Thursday's debate she hadn't entirely decided who she would be voting for Oct. 24. Afterwards, though, she said she haddecided on Bowman, in partbecause she wasn't impressed by Motkaluk.

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"I found a lot of her answers were attack answers rather than giving me information that I needed to hear," said St. Godard.

"I need to hear from her what she can do for me."

A recent Probe Research poll commissioned by CTV Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Free Presssuggests Bowman has a two-to-one lead over Motkaluk, while all other candidates captured a combined 11 per cent of voter support.

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With files fromBartleyKives