Brian Bowman has had a busy 100 days since he was sworn in as mayor of Winnipeg, so how do people think he has fared so far?

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman fields questions from the public at a virtual town hall Monday morning. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC) Bowman was sworn in on Nov. 4 , after being elected elected mayor on Oct. 22.

To mark the milestone, he took questions from the public via Twitter, Facebook, email and by phone during a virtual town hall on Monday morning.

He fielded queries ranging from the light-hearted, such as his top music pick — he chose Van Halen — to more serious questions about the city's Open Data initiative and upcoming challenges.

The mayor later told reporters he was pleased with the number of people who called and used social media to ask him questions and make suggestions.

"All I'd ask is that let's keep the conversation going. It shouldn't end at 100 days," Bowman said, adding that he aims to have a more open and transparent civic government.

"We need the ideas from Winnipeggers. We need to be held accountable and that's something I welcome, and social media is one of the easy platforms to use."

During his first 100 days in office, Bowman suspended Deepak Joshi as the city's acting chief administrative officer, saying he has "lost confidence" in Joshi's ability to serve in that role.

Bowman also dealt head-on with a two-day citywide boil water advisory and a Maclean's magazine article that labelled Winnipeg the most racist city in Canada.

When asked about the Maclean's article at Monday's virtual town hall, Bowman called the magazine article's headline "offensive" but said the challenge is to show the rest of Canada that Winnipeggers can come together and fight intolerance.

Meanwhile, Bowman has had to deal with controversy related to the expansion of the RBC Convention Centre downtown.

Chris Adams, a local political analyst and author, says Bowman appears to be off to a good start.

Bowman drinks a glass of water in front of reporters as he announced on Thursday that a citywide boil water advisory has been lifted. (CBC) "I think he's showing an ability to work with a whole bunch of different stakeholder groups in the community," Adams said of Bowman.

"I mean, he came from the business community and as a lawyer. He's also shown his ability to work with the aboriginal community and community stakeholders."

Some Winnipeggers told CBC News they agree that Bowman is doing a good job so far.

Jason Dyck says what impressed him was Bowman's handling of the controversy surrounding Joshi, who had been partially implicated in a fire hall land swap that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Details about the land swap began to emerge under the previous city administration.

"Bowman doesn't seem to be a corporate guy. He's less of a capitalist than our last mayor was and hopefully he will be able to represent the people's interests rather than the corporate sector's interest," Dyck said.

Adara Patterson said she also likes what she's seen in the new mayor.

"I think it's a good start. I can't say what the future is going to be like, but I think that the fact that he's being more hands-on is better than our past mayor," she said.

Meeting with other mayors this week

As for the future, Bowman said he will lead the fight for new revenues for cities.

Bowman, who will attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Big City Mayors' caucus meeting in Toronto later this week, says there is no way that cities can do what they need with property taxes.

"What are the best revenue models for the growth of our cities? Cities are the economic engines of Canada," he said.

"Especially in the lead-up to the federal election, [it] is something that's being discussed nationwide."

Bowman said he has already spoken with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi about new sources of revenue, and he hopes to speak with other mayors at the meeting.