The Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry ward will have a new councillor on election day, after the incumbent Sherri Rollins pulled out of the race this summer. “Once Sherri withdrew, the incumbent factor was gone,” said candidate Brook Jones. “I was very much surprised yes, that’s actually a big reason why I’ve decided to run,” said candidate Carson Mauthe. Mauthe is one of four hopefuls vying for the council seat, in a ward that includes Osborne Village, South Osborne, West Broadway and Wildwood. Mauthe works in the hospitality, film and arts scene. He says the Winnipeg Transit changes and crime prevention are big issues. “For the people that I’ve been talking to, we want prevention, we want more supports, you know, we want to help people before they get to those stages,” Mauthe said. Candidate Jeff Palmer is a city planner. “I’ve been thinking about cities since I was a kid… building them out of Lego,” Palmer said. Palmer ran a close second in the ward in 2018, inspired to run after his advocacy to get the derelict Rubin Block back in use in South Osborne. The ward has a lot of the city’s homeless encampments. Palmer says more supportive housing is needed. “One project that I turn to all the time is the Bell Hotel on Main Street that I worked on 15 years ago. It’s a supportive housing project. The units were converted to bathrooms and kitchenettes,” Palmer said. Candidate Kevin Stuart also says more housing is needed, and he’d like to speed up road construction. “That means working evenings and weekends for very high density and high traffic areas,” Stuart said. Retired from the investment industry, Stuart also envisions a safer and cleaner city, which includes beaches along the Red and Assiniboine rivers. “That makes us a more liveable city and secondly, you know, it’s very odd we live in a city this size and if you want to go to a beach you have to drive there,” Stuart said. In his early 20s, Jones was the president of the Fort Garry Community Centre. “Personally, very passionate about community centres and grassroots community organizations,” Jones said. The multimedia journalist and freelance photographer says the city needs to focus on the basics like roads, snow clearing, community centres and parks. He worries about demolition by neglect. “You can’t forget about these existing facilities, everybody is talking local, local, local.”
