Tear down the barricades at Portage and Main, bring back consensus-based politics, says Glen Murray

On Oct. 18, Judy Wasylycia-Leis received endorsements from three prominent former city officials, including former mayor and Ontario cabinet minister Glen Murray.

This was a very significant moment for a candidate that had seemed, on more than one occasion, blatantly ignorant of municipal issues.

I had the opportunity to discuss this, and other aspects of civic policy, with former mayor Glen Murray in an interview on Monday, Nov. 1.

“Judy and I worked together for many, many years on important issues around community health and economic development and other things that we both found very important,” said the former mayor. “I found her to be someone who believes very strongly in community partnerships (and) I thought she would bring a lot of things that…(are) really important back to City Hall.”

Murray spoke at length about the various projects he was able to spearhead in the Downtown, how vitally important they are and how he (and city council) was able to achieve them.

“It was a very active, community led government model, which I think saw a lot of things happen in Winnipeg in a very short period of time,” said Murray, taking some credit for the Waterfront Drive development, the Provencher Bridge, the Canadian Human Rights Museum and the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball park.

What was key to his success, he said, was a government model based on consensus.

“I always made sure that my executive committee reflected the geography of the city and a range of political views,” he said, adding that he brought in conservatives like former councillors Bill Clement and Jae Eadie while retaining a strong left-leaning voice in councillors like Jenny Gerbasi.

“Otherwise it becomes ideologically right or ideologically left or it becomes an urban versus suburban split.”

Although Murray would not comment on whether Katz has departed from a consensus-based governing style he would say that “people can judge based on how diverse people’s executive committees are.”

Consensus-based politics will get things done in Winnipeg that have stagnated over the last several years, Murray said, pointing particularly to removing the barricades that block off Portage and Main from pedestrian traffic.

“Everyone tells me that they just find Portage and Main, the most important intersection in Western Canada, to be desolate, sad and windblown,” said Murray. “There was momentum to make it a people place again and (removing the barricades is) one of the most important things that needs to happen (for Winnipeg).”

Although clearly for his own gain, mayor Sam Katz did branch out and appoint a left-leaning councillor to his executive committee this week.

During the campaign he also reluctantly said that he may consider knocking down the barricades (or at least opening up the intersection during the weekend) at Portage and Main.

For me, the latter is among the most important antidotes to the often mind-numbing inactivity and inaccessibility of Downtown Winnipeg.