Emma Durand-Wood elected in Winnipeg byelection

Emma Durnad-Wood will be the new councillor for Elmwood-East Kildonan after winning a byelection over the weekend.

Residents of Elmwood-East Kildonan have elected Emma Durand-Wood to be their next city councillor in Saturday’s byelection.

Durand-Wood secured 1,567 votes or just over 31 per cent in the race which saw a total of seven candidates put their name on the ballot, according to unofficial election results from the city.

Abel Gutierrez came in second place with 887 votes, followed by Braydon Mazurkiewich with 842 votes. Just over 15 per cent of the 31,819 eligible voters cast their ballot.

Durand-Wood, a freelance editor and writer who said she has been really involved in the community for about a decade, described her win to CTV News as “completely surreal.”

“I was just very happy that our work had paid off … but also for my team, which was over 100 volunteers strong. It’s just really incredible to have that result that we wanted,” she said on Sunday.

Durand-Wood said the new job won’t be easy, adding that she has big shoes to fill.

“I really want to just be a strong voice for the community. I think throughout this campaign, I’ve seen that people really want positivity. They want forward-looking solutions. They don’t want to get sort of mired in the negative, and they want a councillor that that works with them in community,” she said.

The byelection was called after the death of Coun. Jason Schreyer, 57, in April, who was first elected in the ward in 2014.

On Friday, the day before the byelection, Durand-Wood said her team started door knocking in July. Some of the biggest concerns she’s heard from residents were crime and homelessness.

“People are really concerned about their own safety and their own well-being, their own property, but also the well-being of people in our city, and really wanting to see solutions that work at getting at the root causes,” she said.

She said her team had knocked on every door in the ward apart from a couple hundred that were left on Friday.

-With files from CTV’s Jeff Keele