Long list of candidates for Elmwood-East Kildonan voters

Ahead of Saturday’s byelection in the Elmwood East-Kildonan ward, CTV’s Jeff Keele breaks down the race and the major campaign issues.

City employees, a finance broker, and a late councillor’s researcher are among the seven candidates vying for the seat of a late Winnipeg councillor.

The Elmwood-East Kildonan race opened after the passing of Councillor Jason Schreyer in April. Voters will have their say in who fills the position on Saturday.

Chris Sweryda

Schreyer family’s endorsed road safety researcher Chris Sweryda, who worked in the late councillor’s office on projects such as the grocery access program.

“It helps immensely; there’s a lot of name recognition behind Jason, and we built up quite a strong support base,” said Sweryda.

Brayden Mazurkiewich

Brayden Mazurkiewich has Transcona Councillor Russ Wyatt and former Conservative MP Shelley Glover in his corner. The finance broker, who’s worked on a number of political campaigns, wanted voters to hear him loud and clear: he’s a fighter.

“I’m running because the residents of Elmwood-East Kildonan haven’t had a strong voice at city hall in a very long time,” said Mazurkiewich.

Carmen Prefontaine

Also getting some high-profile nods was Carmen Prefontaine. She works in the city’s safety health and wellness division. Prefontaine has the labour movement, Councillor Ross Eadie, and the firefighter’s union on her side. She wants to hire more firefighter to curb overtime.

“We would have saved the salaries of 20 full time firefighters (and) pension benefits,” said Prefontaine. “Our (Workers Compensation Board) costs are through the roof.”

Kyle Roche

Kyle Roche is also a city employee. He works in the property and development department and wants Winnipeg to spend more on planning.

“Rather than band-aid fixes and lurching from crisis to crisis,” said Roche.

Emma Durand-Wood

The first candidate to register in the contest was community volunteer and activist Emma Durand-Wood. The editor and freelance writer said her campaign is community-based.

“I just had a lot of neighbours, and fellow advocates, friends, and family say they really believed in me, and they wanted to run a campaign with me, so here I am,” said Durand-Wood.

Abel Jose Gutierrez

Building on his time living in the ward, construction project manager Abel Jose Gutierrez focused on improving safety.

“We need to do something about our derelict properties in this ward,” said Gutierrez. “We need to make sure that this community is more watched, more community patrols.”

The other candidate is childcare worker Zekaria Selahadin.