POP WPG

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Tue, 2020-03-03 02:33

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

POP WPG

So there's a twitter account, which has been mentioned in Canadian Dimensions story by James Wilt, called POP WPG. Standing for "People Over Profit". Their aim is to foster "a slate of socialist candidates for the 2022 Winnipeg municipal election".

https://twitter.com/POP_WPG

They are not fans of the NDP.

https://twitter.com/POP_WPG/status/1193160094562869251

What does this bode for the 2022 municipal elections? Will they work with or against CUPE/Winnipeg Labour Council (WLC) candidates, assuming the WLC even endorses candidates next time after CUPE choose to ignore their endorsement in Daniel McIntyre.

Tue, 2020-03-03 03:29

NDPP

The very best of luck to them. The NDP Is clearly a No Difference Party.

Tue, 2020-03-03 22:26

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

That's nice.

The left hasn't commanded the agenda at City Hall since at least since John Queen. Various rightwing groups, like the Independent Citizens Election Committee, the Gang of 18, and Mayor Katz' right leaning faction (until his last term) have dominated council.

When lucky, the agenda setting faction on Council has been full of mostly left, but some centre & right, councillors. Given the tremendous advantages of incumbency, 2014 and 2018 were probably the last two civic elections where a centre-left labour-backed slate had a shot at dominanting council comfortably.

If POP jumps into the 2022 election and runs rival candidates to WLC/CUPE backed candidates in open wards, this could screw up our best hope at getting more councillors who're willing to preserve services even if it means raising revenue. The cap on property tax increases that Bowman self-imposed is disasterous for services. If the next council has a similarly inclined mayor and more rightwingers, who knows what'll be on the table.

Wed, 2020-03-04 20:33

Aristotleded24

The over-ratedness of Twitter, and how everyone on it thinks they're building some kind of "movement." And seriously, of all the things to criticize the NDP over, they choose to go after what the NDP did or didn't say about Brazil when that has absolutely no bearing on municipal happenings?

In all seriousness, Bowman is a lame duck mayor and we are sleepwalking into Jeff Browaty or someone like him taking over next. Let's take a look at Bowman's coalition. In 2014, he was elected on the strength of progressive urbanists who were inspired by his urban platform, and right-wingers who needed a palatable anti-Judy option after Gord Steeves crashed and burned. Last time his right flank went for Jenny Motkaluk. Now that Bowman has floated the idea of cuts, is the left still going to vote for him? Take a look at his agenda. He did almost no groundwork ahead of time to make a valid case, and when it came decision time and it became clear that that promise could cost him his job, he put that idea to a vote that went down in flames. His ambitious rapid transit plan has been cut back. And eliminating homelessness? Still a problem in the city. The only agenda item of his remaining is the court challenge over development fees.

The road ahead is stark. Every time a mayor has stepped down under the current format, voters in the following election have repudiated that mayor's legacy. So who do we run for mayor? It can't be any of Bowman's council allies (which rules out fellow Brian, Brian Mayes) because the voters will trounce that person. Orlikow also needs to step aside and allow a fresh face, rather than risking losing votes to a minor challenger and a hard-right candidate riding up the middle. I don't think Eadie's a good choice either. He showed poor judgement by making up rumours about Bowman stepping down. He also endorsed Jenny Motkaluk for Mayor. Having run against her for city council, he of all people should have known that she's not a friend of the poor. She also promised lower property taxes than Bowman is doing currently, and her victory would have empowered the Jeff Browaty wing of council. Not only would that have meant steeper cuts to public services, but they would have been rammed through against all public opposition, no questions asked. Jason Schreyer? He's against rapid transit. Is that going to be popular witih urbanist voters?

The real issue here is the ineffectiveness of the Labour Council and how they haven't won a municipal election of consequence since 1998. In the 2010s, they blew 2 elections that were theirs to win, and the third one they didn't even field a mayoral candidate. They also generally fail to win areas outside of traditional NDP strongholds, and they failed to take back Point Douglas when it became open. If the Labour Council is for the working people and cannot win a low-income area when it becomes open, how effective is it? Of course CUPE will be involved, however since CUPE has an obvious material interest in the election of a left-wing mayor, they will need to build a more expansive coalition if they hope to win.

So who should we run for mayor? Aside from it needing to be a leftie who cannot be tied to the Bowman regime, I'm short of ideas. Could Marianne Cerilli try again?

Thu, 2020-03-05 02:20

(Reply to #4) #5

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

Aristotleded24 wrote:

His ambitious rapid transit plan has been cut back.

He didn't really have an rapid transit plan so much as a promise to build all BRT legs by 2030. That doesn't even make sense if he's not in the mayor's office that year. Policy people must obviously have known that there's no way Bowman could deliver on that without federal & provincial funding agreements and those aren't guaranteed, as we're discovering under the Pallister administration.

It is weird that Judy was torn apart over how she'd fund the completion of the SW BRT line but folks just gave Bowman a pass.

Aristotleded24 wrote:
Jason Schreyer? He's against rapid transit. Is that going to be popular witih urbanist voters?

I mean, Schreyer isn't going to be popular with urbanist voters but I don't think rapid transit will have much salience now that the SW BRT line is getting finnished and the City admits we can't do the other lines as real BRT. Do, in part to advcoacy from Functional Transit Winnipeg, the City's policy on transit has shifted to a frequent service network. Schreyer has sorta, it seems, supported that in the past.

The real problem with Schreyer is his incredibly odd, bizarre and rambling way of talking about issues at City Hall. As well as his past use of City credit cards.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

The real issue here is the ineffectiveness of the Labour Council and how they haven't won a municipal election of consequence since 1998.

Was the Winnipeg Labour Council running the centre-left's endorsements in 1998? I recall Winnipeg Into the Nineties was formed and did endorsements. There was a period from 2005 to 2013, I think, when the provincial NDP got in on endorsing municipal candidates. But it wasn't a clear or transparent process.

I thought that there weren't enough left-leaning councillors to have a left majority in 1998. So Murray had to pick some centre and right councillors as part of his governing coalition?