CMU’s Silly Little Mayoral Candidate Debate

by Kyla Willms

Canadian Mennonite University held a mayoral candidate debate at Thursday forum on October 13, 2022. With the misspoken “sissy,” our Stuco president saying, “And now, Shaun Loney” to which Loney responded, “Thanks, Shaun Loney,” and the final kicker, when our President Cheryl Pauls was called Katherine, it was definitely an event to remember. There was fun irony to hold a political debate in a cultural space (Mennonite/Anabaptist) that is so often associated with being apolitical. It was unclear how the participants saw the space or if they knew much of CMU at all. I found it odd to see these four men; Rick Shone, Robert Falcon-Oullette, Shaun Loney, and Scott Gillingham in person, as I have been following the mayoral election all summer via Twitter. It was difficult at first to distinguish three of the candidates on the panel as they were white men with similar builds and shared a lack of hair. Just so everyone knows, CMU’s panel was unlike CBC’s and invited pretty much all the candidates to the table. From what I know, CMU isn’t predisposed to male candidates. Some notables who didn’t join us that afternoon were Rana Boukhari, Glen Murray, Kevin Klein, and Jenny Motkaluk (if you can really call her a candidate). Nicholas Pauls-Harder moderated the event, providing questions he assumed the student body would be interested in, such as climate change, housing affordability, transportation, and policing and crime. Pauls-Harder also began the event by acknowledging that the city’s government and mayoral position is a direct arm of settler-colonial institutions. It was fun to scan the politicians to see their reactions to such remarks, from my memory Gillingham and Shone looked the most discomforted, with raised eyebrows and the shifting of position. However, I’m no expert on body language. Now, I’ll go through generally how each candidate responded to these prompts. Rick Shone was the first on the panel, who stands out to me as the candidate who had his bike stolen hours after holding a press conference on bike theft, where he rode in on the exact bike that got stolen. IF you want to be part of a very fringe conspiracy theory (that some may call offensive, but I think it’s just funny) you can join me in believing that Shone got his bike “stolen” as a publicity stunt and to emphasize his platform on bike theft. From my memory, Shone is really passionate about bikes and compost in terms of climate change. He is also very concerned about approaching the houselessness issue in Winnipeg by building tiny homes on the city’s property and providing jobs. Shone also really wanted to let us know that he knows a lot of very nice police officers who really care about Winnipeg (a not-sosubtle response to ACAB). Next was Robert Falcon-Oullette, the one who accidentally said “sissy.” Falcon-Oullette emphasized his support for the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness in Winnipegcreated by End Homelessness Winnipeg in 2014 to combat houselessness in the city. To address transportation in terms of climate change, safety, and affordability he advocated for $1 bus tickets, light rail transit, and safe injection sites. Falcon-Oullette really stressed the interconnection of the issues raised by Pauls-Harder and that he would want to address them together with lots of smaller solutions rather than one big solution.

Then we had Shaun Loney, who really wanted to make sure we knew who he was, even after being introduced. Unfortunately, Loney’s campaign slogan, “Only Loney,” is so cringy for me I am just biased against him and his ideas. Following him on Twitter and constantly seeing “Only Loney,” all I think of is “only lonely,” and then it just gives me bad vibes. Loney is an economic guy, as he made clear to us by getting really technical with numbers (and losing the crowd’s attention in the process). To address climate change and transit Loney wants heat pumps and transit so good cars will be undesirable. Also, he is an avid supporter of land trusts – if you want to know more about what that is, ask Prof. James Magnus-Johnston. Loney is also a bike lover and wants to spend $20 million on bike lanes. He also emphasized safety on transit and wants to reduce police workload by 10% so they can get to the issues that matter. And finally, we had Scott Gillingham – a CMU alumnus, as he kept reminding us. If you’ve driven around in Charleswood you may have noticed the amount of Gillingham signs up. For me, that was enough of a sign to not be very interested in his campaign. Gillingham wants to electrify the bus system, add solar and geothermal solutions to buildings, and wants to increase affordable housing grants to developers. Additionally, Gillingham wants to develop our trade roads, which he says will increase trade capacity and then create more jobs. He also shared with the group that he used to sit as chairman of the police board and wants to enforce bias training for police officers while also relying on non-profits for community-based safety initiatives. Overall, the candidates were interesting and uninteresting. I stand-by my assumption that politicians really don’t act like real people. It was my first time at any type of debate, and I found the whole thing hilarious. The candidates’ final remarks went: Shaun – Climate change is an amazing economic opportunity. Scott – You young people should vote with your values. Rick – You young people should vote with criticalvalues. Robert – Values are great and all, but choose a different voice, maybe one that represents those who need it most in the city.

Image source: Mayor Scott Gillingham’s Instagram account