The race to become Winnipeg’s next mayor is officially underway. With his wife Marla, Scott Gillingam walked across the city hall courtyard and registered his name to run for a second term as mayor this October. “We have made a lot of progress in this first term,” he told reporters. Elected mayor in 2022, Gillingham says under his watch, city council moved ahead on a number of major files like the North End Sewage Treatment Plant, re-opening Portage and Main to pedestrians, the Portage Place redevelopment, and zoning changes to make more housing available. “As a council, I think I’ve lead decisions that have been held up for years and not been made,” he said. “We’ve seen record progress on housing development.” Gillingham will have the advantage of being an incumbent one-term mayor, which historically is hard to defeat. City politics professor Aaron Moore says he’s in a pretty good position. “There hasn’t been any really substantive like problems or like scandals at the city so far,” he said. But Gillingham may be vulnerable on some issues. He raised property taxes higher than promised in 2025, water and sewer rates have been rising, retail crime spiked during his term, and the new transit system has hit speed bumps. Gillingham says they’ve added police officers, fire fighters and transit security, and he says moving to the new bus network was the right way to go. “We’re building a city for the future, that necessitates making bold decisions, like the change in our transit system,” Gillingham said. “We continue to work on it. We continue to adjust it and we’ll keep doing that until we get it right.” He’s not alone on the ballot, so far. Grocery clerk Christopher Clacio also registered Friday morning. Clacio ran in 2022 and received 451 votes, finishing last in an 11-person race. “It was a small team, just me, but this time around I actually have a real campaign,” said Clacio. Clacio describes himself as a progressive candidate. If elected, Clacio pledges to remove the mayor’s seat from the council and instead, act as the speaker. “Why does the mayor have a voice at council?” said Clacio. “I think he should be convening the councillors to have debate among themselves.” The deadline for registration is Sept. 22. To run for mayor, candidates must be nominated by obtaining 250 signatures from eligible voters. The nomination period runs from Sept. 16 to 22. The election set to take place on Oct. 28. More information on mayoral candidate registration, nomination and qualification is available online.
