How do you fix Winnipeg?
Murders, homelessness, opioids: Good luck, Scott Gillingham
A few days after I got home from my trip to Winnipeg last week, the city recorded its 45th murder of the year. A new record, with seven weeks left in the year. More murders than Montreal this year. Not quite as many as Toronto, but Toronto has five times Winnipeg’s population.
I’d gone to Winnipeg on a bit of a whim. I wanted to talk to one of the fall’s newly-elected crop of Canadian mayors, because I’ve always believed that city problems are Canadian problems. Gillingham, a two-term Winnipeg city councillor who’d barely eked out a win on his first run for mayor at the end of October, was willing to talk. Zoom calls are fun but I decided to get on a flight and meet Gillingham face-to-face.
Gillingham is an interesting story. He was a Pentecostal minister before entering politics. He got to city hall by promising substantial and sustained property-tax increases. Which is not usually how that works. I thought of Vaclav Havel’s New Year’s Day speech in 1990: “I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you.” He was cautious, a bit guarded, in our conversation, which seemed only proper because he’s heading into a hard job. Every big city is a downtown surrounded by suburbs, and I bet it’s tempting to run in the suburbs against the downtown, but hinterlands can’t survive on their own if the centre city is a mess. And Winnipeg — a wonderful place that’s long been a hub of creativity and enterprise that benefit the whole country — has lately been trending mess-wards.
So here’s this week’s episode of my podcast, featuring my interview with the new mayor of a great but worried city.
Here’s where to find The Paul Wells Show on other platforms.
As always, this podcast is brought to you by many stalwart people.
Our Founding Sponsor is Telus. Our Title Sponsor is Compass Rose. The institutional basis for this work is my post as the inaugural Journalist Fellow-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Our Ottawa partner is the National Arts Centre. Antica Productions wrangles guests, records audio, helps me stay organized, and does all the other work of turning this into a podcast. The Toronto Star and iPolitics distribute and promote The Paul Wells Show. Kevin Breit recorded and performed the music. Sound engineering on location in Winnipeg this week was by Sierra Noble of No Fun Club, which gave me a chance to check out Sierra’s music after Gillingham’s staff recognized them.
Thanks to them all. If you like what you hear there or read here, please tell a friend.
One more thing. Of course there’s a lot of room for optimism in Winnipeg. I was struck by two development projects there. One is the Southern Chiefs’ Organization’s project to turn the old Hudson’s Bay flagship store into a centre for economic and social reconciliation. The other is the creation of a Métis National Heritage Centre in the old Bank of Montreal HQ a few blocks away. Add the ambitious new Inuit art wing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Qaumujuq, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and you start to see a critical mass of projects designed to put Winnipeg’s Indigenous heritage at the centre of the city’s activity. That’s part of this week’s story too.
Thanks for heading west to produce an on the ground view from a Prairie city. I have a couple of comments/observations:
- Mayor Gillingham didn’t bag a large plurality of the vote, but it was a large field, including 3 or 4 quality candidates who split the center-right vote. Glen Murray had commanding leads in polls conducted through the summer and fall, but his center-left platform fizzled at the finish line.
- The homeless issues in Winnipeg are serious. Perhaps on scale no worse than other big cities except for the harsh winter weather. The human resources and shelter space devoted to the homeless on a cold winter night is impressive and worthy of praise, but the more that is committed the worse it gets.
The dialogue over the homeless tragedy is dominated by the social conscience players, who spend lots of time hand wringing over root causes of being homeless (as did Judy Wasylycia-Leis in Mr. Wells podcast). Unfortunately, there is very little discussion about personal responsibilities that the homeless have toward those of us who are warm and safe every night. The public isn’t allowed to have expectations that a homeless encampment would be clean, tidy and free of criminal activity. So open fires consume lives through carelessness. Some feature chop shops, a lucrative sideline to “recycle” stolen bikes for cash. But should kids playing nearby have to tip toe around used needles? Why should the elderly brave the weather and stand in human waste at bus stops while the homeless set up shop in the heated bus shelters?
There is something wrong with the way that this picture has developed, and some strong willed politicians are sorely needed to bring a rational viewpoint to the situation. I hope Mayor Gillingham can make some progress.
Well for sure I will be renewing my subscription to help pay for your trip to my city !
And as a bonus you spoke to the person I volunteered for in the election.
The interview reinforced everything I know about him.