Eadie faces crowded field — including former councillor — in bid for fifth term in Mynarski

THE city’s most crowded council race has a little bit of everything: a long-serving incumbent, a former ward councillor in the 1980s, an unsuccessful candidate in the last municipal election seeking a rematch and three political newcomers.

Mynarski has long been led by Coun. Ross Eadie, who was first elected in 2010 and is seeking his fifth term. Five challengers want the job: Natalie Smith, who ran in the ward in 2022 and came in second, Terry Wachniak, Harold Brazil, Laurie Kozak and Ayaz Noor Mohammed.

It’s the city ward with the largest number of candidates this year.

Eadie describes himself as “a dancer, a singer and a city councillor” who has made inroads on garbage pickup, back-lane cleaning and earning the respect of his fellow council members by being the first Mynarski councillor to be appointed to executive policy committee, the mayor’s inner circle, in decades.

“Every one of my competitors has no experience in how to get things done at city hall. None,” said Eadie, 66.

He wants the city to add more neighbourhood action teams without pulling from its inventory of street maintenance staff, invest more in safety measures for Winnipeg Transit drivers and he promised to continue fighting for safety improvements in the ward.

He pointed to the Little Stars Playhouse daycare on Selkirk Avenue, which has had recent break-ins, thefts and vandalism, as an example of a business that he’s worked to support.

But the campaign trail hasn’t been easy this time around.

He admits he’s lost the union vote — the Winnipeg Labour Council and the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg have thrown their support behind Smith — and believes he’s faced discrimination over his age.

“The attitude of a lot of people out there who are opposed to me — it’s ageism. It’s discrimination,” he said. “I am still viable. I am healthy, I work hard and, well, I’ve slowed down a touch, but the reality is, I can do the job and I have the energy and the passion to get it done.”

Smith said she’s hearing “frustration” from residents.

“I think people appreciate the work that Ross has done in the community, but I know that there’s a lot of concerns about the direction that the community is headed in, and I think there is a big appetite for change,” said Smith, 36.

Poverty and affordability are some of the most pressing concerns in Mynarski right now, she said, and there’s a wide range of steps council could take to address those issues, from investing in community safety initiatives to maintaining relationships with the provincial and federal governments to improve access to addictions treatment and housing supports.

She noted she is also endorsed by Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Leah Gazan.

“If we can create more economic development in our neighbourhood, because that’s really lacking in our neighbourhood, we can then start to address issues around safety,” she said.

Transit improvements are also front of mind. Smith said she’d push for the provincial government to restore 50-50 funding, a previous cost-sharing agreement in place beginning in the 1970s that had the provincial government match a municipality’s public transit operating costs, not including fare revenue. It has been cancelled and reinstated more than once, most recently by the Progressive Conservatives in 2017.

Smith regularly works in environmental protection with the Manitoba branch of the Wilderness Committee non-profit, and worked for Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos and Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor before the provincial NDP was elected.

The next phase of Winnipeg’s biodiversity plan is on the docket at city hall next year, and Smith said advocating for it will be a priority for her.

Wachniak served a single term as Mynarski’s city councillor, from 1986 to 1989. In 2011, he finished eighth of 10 candidates in a St. Vital ward byelection.

He said many of the things he’s looking to improve today are similar to what he pushed for during his time on council.

“Back then I was largely concerned about the crime rate in Winnipeg and the street-light conditions of Winnipeg, and those have not gotten better over the decades,” said Wachniak, 71, who ran an auction company after his brief stint on council.

Part of his decision to run was a series of what he calls “disasters” in recent decision-making from the city: namely, the $1.1-billion rapid transit network, which is expected to be completed by 2045, and the demolition of the Arlington Bridge.

“Council is expecting a complete demolition of the bridge for the $22 million that they allowed for that, and it’s all been spent, and there are so many tens of millions (of dollars) more to go… it’s a disaster for the next council to be dealing with,” he said.

Even if Brazil’s name doesn’t ring a bell, many North Enders have given him a ring: before his current work as a nurse and Realtor, he owned Mr. Bones Pizza.

“That gave me the experience to know about big budgets,” said Brazil, 59.

“This was a multimillion-dollar company, and I had fun doing that, but then I became a family man.”

He said he was inspired to run after watching Mynarski residents struggle with homelessness, addiction and poverty. His own daughter struggled with addiction before she died of cancer three years ago.

He wants to see new transitional housing built in the ward, plans to push for more police officers and will call on the provincial government to move forward on new supports for struggling ward residents.

“We have to tackle all this at the same time,” he said. “Once you tackle the addiction, that’s going to reduce crime, that will have more police on the ground to go after the real criminals… and then we have to increase the police.”

He said he’s received “hundreds” of complaints from residents who say they haven’t been able to connect with Eadie.

Kozak, an office manager, has lived in Mynarski for nearly 30 years. In that time, she said, she’s felt the sense of community in the once tight-knit ward falter, fuelled by people’s public safety concerns.

She wants to build something similar to the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association Powerline in the Point Douglas ward — a phone line available seven days a week for residents to report crime, bylaw infractions or unsafe activity — in Mynarski.

“People are fearful of reporting and talking about things that are happening in their neighbourhood, but they shouldn’t be,” said Kozak, 58.

She previously served as the director of development for Inner City Youth Alive, which she said gave her experience in fundraising and applying for grants.

“I want my office to be a hub where people feel comfortable that they can get resources, they can report to me if they want to, that I am available,” she said.

Mohammed has lived in Mynarski since he moved to Winnipeg from India about a decade ago.

Like the other candidates, he said safety is the main issue he’s hearing while out knocking on doors, along with the redesigned Winnipeg Transit network and slow-moving public services.

He’d said he’d like to push for a “centralized dashboard” available to Winnipeg residents that would show issues that have been reported to 311 and addressed by the city on a map, as an accountability measure.

“As a resident, we don’t get to know what action has been taken for the concerns the residents has raised,” he said.

Mohammed developed, patented and is producing an in-home medical device to boost fertility, inspired by the struggles he and his wife experienced in trying to start their family. They now have two sons.

He said along with his desire to make change, the support he’s received since arriving in Winnipeg has given him the motivation to run municipally.

“I just want to give back to the community that has blessed me with so much,” he said. “That’s the whole point of this entire campaign.”

Election day is Oct. 28.

malak.abas@winnipegfreepress.com