Former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray says he is returning to his old job.
Murray announced Wednesday afternoon that he is a candidate for mayor in this fall’s municipal elections in Winnipeg, after filing the necessary paperwork to register his campaign at City Hall.
“I love this city. We’re going to get things done quickly,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going back to the kinds of partnerships that made us so proud of our city.”
Murray was mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 until 2004, when he resigned to run for the federal Liberal Party.
He lost that race, but was elected a Liberal MPP in Ontario in 2011, where he held various cabinet positions until he briefly left politics in 2017.
In 2020, Murray ran to replace Elizabeth May as leader of the federal Green Party, but lost.
The city has “enormous challenges”
Murray said that since returning to Winnipeg a few years ago to work in the private sector, he has been struck by the difficulty of getting developments off the ground, the city’s crumbling infrastructure and how the most vulnerable in the city are in trouble.
“This city has enormous challenges. They are on the scale of the challenges when I was first elected mayor,” he said.
“I’ve never had so much experience in my entire life. I’m way more qualified to do this job than when I was young and first did it.”
When asked why he wouldn’t stay in the private sector and work there to improve the city, he said he thought major changes were needed at the municipal level.
“There is real frustration in the private sector that there really needs to be a change in the public sector, so that we can get back to business in the city,” he said.
Murray says he didn’t take the decision to run lightly and consulted with a number of people about running for mayor before taking the plunge.
He said he would present his platform at a later date.
“High level” challenge for other candidates
In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Murray hinted that he was able to resolve some financial issues during his time as mayor.
Aaron Moore disputes some of these comments.
“I think his decision to freeze property taxes for several years is part of the reason we’re in the financial situation we are in,” said Moore, a University of Winnipeg political science professor who specializes in politics. municipal.
“I think to suggest that he did fiscal magic as mayor and now has to come back and fix it is kind of ignoring the contribution he made to the problem.”
Moore also thinks many still think highly of Murray. He called it both fairly moderate or progressive, depending on the issue. Murray’s property tax freeze, for example, was a fiscally conservative move, Moore said.
The fact that he left Manitoba might inspire some skepticism among some voters, Moore said, though he also thinks Murray might make life harder for some competitors.
“With someone as well-known as Glen Murray in the running, it might cause some of the other candidates to reassess their chances of winning,” he said.
Winnipeg must move forward, say rivals
Murray is now the 11th person to register a mayoral campaign for the Oct. 26 election in Winnipeg.
The 10 other candidates are Idris Adelakun, Chris Clacio, Rana Bokhari, Scott Gillingham, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Rick Shone, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock.
After Murray announced his run, Shone said in a statement that Winnipeg must “look ahead” and “is at a crossroads” when it comes to infrastructure, debt, homelessness, public transit common, public safety and affordability.
He accused Murray of abandoning Winnipeggers in 2004 and leaving his job as mayor unfinished.
“I am not a career politician, I am a father of two, small business owner, volunteer in the community and love my home. I am excited about our future. Now is not the time to looking back,” Shone said in her written statement. said.
“We don’t need a mayor who is more interested in being a star on the national stage.”
Regarding Murray’s suggestion about concerns over the city’s financial situation, rival Gillingham, currently a St. James councilor and until recently chairman of the city’s finance committee, said “there is still money in the bank” after a $220 million hit from the pandemic.
“[There was] no additional assistance from the Province of Manitoba. We’ve maintained our credit rating…so we’ve done a really good job,” he said after Murray’s announcement.
Gillingham said his goal in his mayoral campaign was to communicate a vision for Winnipeg “that is exciting, realistic and achievable, and one that drives the city forward.”
“Glen has been…away from Winnipeg for almost 20 years,” Gillingham said.
“I’ve been here with my hand behind the wheel and led it all, and so I’m ready to take on the leadership of the mayoral job.”
“Internet evangelist. Extreme communicator. Subtly charming alcohol aficionado. Typical tv geek.”