On Jan. 5, 1874, Winnipeggers went to the polls for the very first time to elect the first mayor and councillors in the city’s history. Now, 152 years later, Winnipeggers are once again gearing up to vote in the newest edition of politicians to lead Winnipeg. Before the next mayor and councillors are elected on Wednesday, here is a look back at some of the election history that has helped shape Winnipeg through the years. Starting with the very first election, Francis Evans Cornish was elected as Winnipeg’s first mayor. According to the city, he beat out William F. Luxton by 34 votes. Only 398 people were allowed to vote in that first election, even though the population was around 2,000 people. The reason being, according to the city, was because you had to either own property worth $100 or more or pay $20 in rent a year. City documents note that property qualifications for voting ended by 1942. Although the first election was 1874, it was quite some time before women were allowed to hold office in Winnipeg. It took until 1916 for the city to allow women to run in a municipal election and the first woman to take office was Jessie Kirk in 1920. She would serve on council for two years. Now, six women are part of Winnipeg’s current council. Even after Kirk was elected, it was still another 72 years before Winnipeg elected its first woman mayor. Susan A. Thompson was elected in 1992. She became the 40th mayor in the city’s history, serving two terms until 1998. After leaving the mayor’s chair, Thompson went on to become the first woman to hold the title of Canada’s Consul General in Minneapolis. She would also be the founding president and CEO of the University of Winnipeg Foundation. Unified City of Winnipeg There was a big change at city hall in 1972 as Winnipeg became unified with the surrounding municipalities. It total, 12 municipalities – Winnipeg, Charleswood, East Kildonan, Fort Garry, North Kildonan, Old Kildonan, St. Boniface, St. James-Assiniboia, St. Vital, Transcona, Tuxedo and West Kildonan – formed the new city of Winnipeg. It raised the city’s population from just under 260,000 people to almost 550,000. The change in population dramatically altered what city hall would become. During the 1971 election, five people ran for mayor, while 164 tried to become councillor for one of the 50 open positions and there were 140 working to be one of the 71 school trustees. Those large numbers were eventually changed, as they dropped councillor seats down to 29 in 1977. Currently, there are 15 councillor positions. That election also holds the record for the highest percentage of overall voter turnout with 60.7 per cent. The next closest was in 1992 with 58.4 per cent. Winnipeg’s last election in 2022 had a voter turnout of 37.5 per cent. The man who would go on to win the mayoral seat during that unified election was Stephen Juba. He was the incumbent in the race, as he was first elected in 1956. He holds two claims to fame outside of the work he did while in office. First, he is the last mayoral candidate to beat out an incumbent. When he was first elected, he beat out incumbent George Edward Sharpe. Since then, no mayoral incumbent has lost an election. Also, Juba is credited with being the longest tenured mayor of the city, holding office from 1957 until 1977. Technology at the polls Prior to 1995, ballots were counted by hand during municipal elections. But that changed when the city brought in automated voting machines for the first time in the 1995 election. Those machines allowed ballots to be counted electronically, and the city said the machines are still used today. The 2018 election also saw a significant shift in technology use, as it was the first time the city used iPads. They were used in a limited capacity and then expanded in the 2022 election. Now, the city said iPads will be replacing all paper voter lists at polling locations, meaning all voter information will now be pulled up electronically. If Winnipeggers haven’t cast a vote yet during advanced polls, they can go to a polling station on Oct. 28 to vote. Polls will be open until 8 p.m.
