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Thursday 1 November 2012

Wasylycia-Leis: “I should have beat Sam Katz and I could have”

Katz, Wacylycia-Leis, Oct 7, 2010
On last week's Winnipeg Internet Pundits radio show on UMFM one of our guests was former M.L.A., M.P. and mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis. We had a wide-ranging discussion about the 2010 Winnipeg mayoral race, her take on the state of the city today, whether we need parties at the municipal level and why the number of women in municipal politics so pathetically low.

As for her loss to incumbent Sam Katz in 2010, Wasylycia-Leis said I should have beat Sam Katz and I could have” and was candid about which campaign decisions likely cost her the race. 

The issue that got the most media attention was, of course, her call for a phased-in property tax increase of 2 per-cent per year for four years. She said that she simply "wasn't prepared to counter the kind of attacks that Sam Katz made" against that pledge, including a robo-call campaign in which the mayor warned that: seniors and "homeowners on the poverty bubble" would lose their homes because of the increase. (Since the election, Winnipeggers have seen new or increased frontage levies, garbage / recycling fees, sewer / water fees PLUS a 3.5% property tax increase.)


Sam Judy
Overall, she said that the experience was a very positive one so we asked the big question: will we see a rematch in 2014 ?

Wasylycia-Leis said that she would like to run again and continues to “keep abreast of the issues and keep visible in the community” but didn't rule out choosing to work behind the scenes to get someone else elected to the mayor's chair.

You can listen to the show, which also included as a guest city councillor Jeff Browaty, at our Tumblr site (October 24 episode.)

4 comments:

Dr. Jody Perrun said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NK Voter said...

Hopefully neither of them run in the next election. Would much rather see a new generation of political leaders set forward instead of the same party hacks that have been around since the 1980s and 90s.

Christian Cassidy said...

If Sam doesn't run again that could bring out "A" team people to run. Most wouldn't run against an incumbent.

Anonymous said...

Judy W-L? No thanks, she could and should not have been elected.

I don't know if your inclusion of her orange NDP sign (as opposed to her "Judy" sign from 2010) was an inadvertent slip-up, but that is showing her true colours.

Speaking of her true colours, she is fortunate that the media outlet which promoted her at every turn said nothing about her penchant for making appearances at vigils for murder victims and other scenes of serious crimes and tactlessly using them as opportunites to promote her campaign. I and many others found this quite distasteful. Guess being a career backbench politician leads to a certain detachment form reality, and certainly does not make one fit to run a city.