Provincial government’s involvement in city politics continues

Some find NDP’s actions ‘astonishing and irresponsible’

Shaneen Robinson is running for city council in the Elmwood-East Kildonan ward. Shaneen Robinson

Residents of Elmwood-East Kildonan piled into a hot, cramped room in the Valley Gardens Community Club on June 21. After heated speeches from three political candidates, visitors were asked to leave, the doors were barred and residents held their ballots in the air as a box was passed around the room.

However, these residents were not party members seeking to nominate a candidate to run in a provincial or federal election. These were provincial NDP members seeking to endorse a candidate running for a traditionally non-partisan office.

Shaneen Robinson, a former CTV reporter, won the provincial NDP’s endorsement in her quest to become the next city councillor for the Winnipeg ward of Elmwood-East Kildonan. Over 200 NDP delegates came out to the Valley Gardens Community Club, with the largest majority supporting Robinson on the first ballot.

The endorsement gives Robinson access to party volunteer and membership lists, as well as the right to use the party’s orange colours in her campaign for city council.

“I think this (endorsement) was a very major step in winning the seat,” said Lillian Thomas, who has retired after serving as city councillor for Elmwood-East Kildonan for 21 years. She received the NDP endorsement for each of the seven city campaigns she fought.

The Manitoba NDP has long endorsed candidates running for Winnipeg’s city council. But the endorsement has come under increasing scrutiny as it makes a larger impact on this year’s city election.

Hans Cunningham is the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and has been a director for the British Columbia municipality of Central Kootenay, a regional district similar to an American county, for nearly 25 years.

Although he could not speak for the FCM because it has no official policy on the matter, Cunningham finds it “astonishing and irresponsible” that a provincial government would get so directly involved at the municipal level.

“Most municipalities, and most people running for municipal politics, consider their party affiliations to be irrelevant,” he said.

There were three like-minded candidates in this (endorsement) race that came from the same party, have the same set of beliefs and want to work toward the same goals - why would we run against each other (in a city election)?

Shaneen Robinson, city council candidate, Elmwood-East Kildonan

Cunningham believes that direct provincial involvement in local government generates a conflict of interest. If a city councillor or mayor has won their seat because of an NDP party endorsement they may be reluctant to oppose the interests of the provincial government, even if those interests conflict with the interests of their constituents, out of fear they will lose their endorsement in the next election.

There are ways of retrieving party member and volunteer lists without pledging any kind of allegiance to a provincial party and no municipal candidate should be bound to a party name, he said.

The NDP defends the endorsement process as a way of eliminating needless competition between like-minded candidates. The endorsement narrows down the number of “progressive” candidates to one, rather than NDP members competing for support and splitting the vote.

“There were three like-minded candidates in this (endorsement) race that came from the same party, have the same set of beliefs and want to work toward the same goals - why would we run against each other (in a city election)?” said Robinson, referring to school trustee Rod Giesbrecht and long-time NDP member Darryl Livingstone, her challengers for the NDP endorsement.

Both Giesbrecht and Livingstone are likely to drop out as candidates in Elmwood-East Kildonan, despite being under no obligation from the city of Winnipeg to do so.

Robinson added that it is naïve to think that the other provincial parties do not provide municipal candidates with party members lists and other resources. The only difference is that the NDP is “open and transparent” about that process and give party members a say in who gets access to party resources.

The impact of the NDP endorsement process is being felt in a big way in the run up to the Oct. 27 city election.

The process has already removed 18-year council veteran Harvey Smith, who announced his retirement upon losing his endorsement to Keith Bellamy in the Daniel McIntyre ward. Bellamy is the constituency assistant for federal NDP MP Pat Martin.

It is also likely that a nomination meeting will take place in the Mynarski ward, where 30-year councillor Harry Lazarenko is being challenged for the NDP endorsement by school trustee Ross Eadie.

Lorraine Sigurdson, president of the Manitoba NDP, doesn’t think it was deliberate even though many people did feel that it was time for some of the incumbents to retire to bring fresh faces to city council.

Published in Volume 64, Number 27 of The Uniter (June 30, 2010)

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