The mayor who promised little has 4 more years to do it
Brian Bowman didn't really tell Winnipeg what he would do with another term. Ultimately, that didn't matter
During his first term as Winnipeg mayor, Brian Bowman failed to deliver on the biggest and boldest of his promises.
Hispush to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians crashed against the barricades of popular opinion on election night 2018. His promise to complete five more rapid-transit corridors is no closer to being fulfillednow than it was four years ago.
And his pledge to democratize city council?Well, aquarter of the sitting council chamber complains of being left out in the political cold.
That's why it's no surpriseBowman chose to promise little in the way of substanceduring a re-election campaign that started late, ended early and offered Winnipeggersvery littleindication of what he wants to do over the next four years.
Brian Bowman coasted to victory Wednesday because no other mayoral candidate offered an appealing alternative to his mild-mannered, middle-of-the-road style of executivemanagement.
Road repairs as vision
The only substantive plank in Bowman's re-election campaign was a pledge to continue raising property taxes in order to do more road repairs.
This dour promise could be seen as an effort by Bowman to remake himself as apragmatist after setting idealistic, urbanistgoals for the city four years ago.
On re-election night, he denied he's undergone any change.
"I mapped out a continued positive vision," he told reporters moments after a victory speech heavy on buzzwords and short on specifics. "The vision has been the same since I started in 2014 and that is building a city, growing it."
Bowman spent many of his 2018 campaign stops talking about growing Winnipeg to one million people. He didn't explain how he'd enable such a goal.
Winnipeg faces a crucial shortage of serviced industrial land, something prospective employers look for when they think about setting up shop in a city. Bowman offered no means of opening up more of these lands.
Some Winnipeg developers are waffling on plans to follow through on infill projects because of uncertainty about where growth fees will be applied. Bowman's administration has alienated these developers by failing to consult with them in a meaningful manner.
These are not special interest groupsthat need to be kept at arm's length from the mayor's office, challenger Jenny Motkaluk said during her otherwise uneven campaign to unseat Bowman.
Simply put, Bowman spent the past six weeks talking about continuing Winnipeg's"forward-looking momentum" without defining what that means, let alone explaining how it will continue.
He sat back while the energetic but inexperiencedMotkalukand a crew of fringe mayoral challengers some of them full-blown conspiracy theorists made themselves look decidedly less electable.
No mood for change
In response, Winnipeg voters continued their six-decade-long streak of re-electing incumbent mayors.
They also avoided any other change, except when they had no choice.
Every incumbent councillor that faced a challenge from outside of council was re-elected on Thursday.
That included Elmwood-EastKildonan'sJason Schreyer, whose rookie term was marred by beingcensured for abusing his city credit card and failing to attend meetings.
The only council incumbent who lost his seat was former St. Charles councillor Shawn Dobson, whose ward was realigned out of existence. Dobsonfaced off in St. James against Scott Gillingham, who gained a reputation forquiet competence during his own rookie term, as well as therespect and trust of most of his colleagues.
All five new faces at city council were elected in wards where noincumbents ran for re-election.
Conservative-affiliated Shawn Nason was electedin Transcona.
NDP-affiliatedSherri Rollinspicked up the labour-friendly ball from Jenny Gerbasi, a longtime councillor who endorsed Rollins after she decided not to run for re-election herselfin Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry.
Vivian Santos went from working for Mike Pagtakhanin Point Douglas to succeeding him in that ward.
Charleswood-Tuxedocouncillor-elect Kevin Klein is the only candidate in any 2018 race to be endorsed by both the firefighters' union and the police union.
And St. Norbert-Seine River councillor-electMarkus Chambers is very likely the first black Winnipegger to be elected to council.
The desire for zero change also extended to the Portage and Main plebiscite, which was defeated just as easily as a CBC-commissioned Probe Research poll suggested it would be two months ago.
For the one-third of Winnipeg voters who wanted the barricades to come down, there may be a temptation to blame North KildonanCoun. Jeff Browaty, who proposedthe plebiscite. Those voters may also be tempted to blame Motkaluk, whose early tactical brilliance practically forced Bowman to go with the flow of Browaty's gambit.
But perhaps they should blame Bowman, who promised to open the intersection in 2014 and hadthe political capital to follow through,but chose not to dip into that kitty.
Bowman defeatedMotkalukby 37,668 votes on Wednesday. He beat her by 17 percentage points of the popular vote.
Asked whether his choice to abandon his Portage and Main pledge amounted to an act of political cowardice, the re-elected mayor pushed back.
"I'm not going to apologize for listening to Winnipeggers and they spoke today pretty clear," he said.
Bowman's strategy on Portage and Main seems to indicate he could walk back any promise that winds up being less popular than he is.
Luckily for Winnipeggers, he didn't promise much this election campaign. Except, you know, to grow the city. Somehow.
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