Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 2/10/2014 (2180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg mayoral candidates heard Thursday night from angry inner-city residents and disaffected younger voters at a lightly attended mayoral forum at Rossbrook House, the Centennial neighbourhood drop-in centre.

Five of the city's seven mayoral wannabes spent their Thursday evening doing a little less talking and a little more listening than they've grown accustomed to during this campaign, as the questions at the inner-city forum were posed in the form of meandering but passionate rants against phoney politicians and bilious campaign rhetoric.

Former St. Vital councillor Gord Steeves and booking agent Michel Fillion didn't attend the forum, allowing more time for Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Brian Bowman, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, David Sanders and Paula Havixbeck to face the wrath of about 30 people.

'The people with all the money in this city pull the strings. City hall doesn't stop at Slaw Rebchuk Bridge' ‐ ornery forum participant

Sanders, now running fifth according to the latest Probe Research poll, was singled out by community activist Michael Champagne, who accused the lawyer and former provincial bureaucrat of turning off younger voters through negative campaigning.

"Point to something, point to one thing in your campaign that would demonstrate what kind of leader you would be as mayor," Champagne implored of all the candidates.

When Sanders started listing off his pledges, Champagne interrupted. "You used a puppet as a prop!" he shouted, before being restrained by friends and a forum organizer.

The other candidates, all of whom have issued attacks of some sort, tried to portray themselves as existing above the negative-campaign fray.

"What I've tried to do in this campaign is not debate the personality of a person -- though it has been difficult," Ouellette said.

After the forum, Champagne said he was just expressing his frustration. "There's this emphasis from candidates who waste their time and energy discussing what the other guys or the other jurisdictions should be doing, as opposed to educating us, as citizens, on what they are actually going to be doing," he said.

"I believe young people pay attention to politics when they're inspired, and our elected officials cannot offer a tangible example of being a human being and someone with authenticity."

Earlier, an even more ornery forum participant got up to a microphone and compared Winnipeg's current city council to "Al Capone's booze-running thugs" and asked the candidates whether they will be puppets, if elected.

"The people with all the money in this city pull the strings," he declared. "City hall doesn't stop at Slaw Rebchuk Bridge."

All five candidates spent the two-hour forum repeating campaign pledges, taking advantage of unfocused questions to bring up favourite talking points.

They also stressed their connections to the North End and the inner city and most pledged to improve the 311 call centre.

Sanders, however, promised to effectively dissolve the one-stop communication shop by re-publishing a list of city phone numbers to once again allow Winnipeggers to reach city departments directly.





The next mayoral forum, centred on poverty issues, is slated for tonight at Gordon Bell High School.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca