People who believe they could be the successor to Winnipeg's leftist tradition will hold a founding meeting June 10.
The group of about 100 people calls itself the Winnipeg Citizens' Coalition.
Mayor Sam Katz
Its short-term goals, members said, involve bringing left-wing ideas to civic politics and engaging more people in municipal issues.
As they try to weave together many grassroots constituencies, coalition members said they have their eyes on a larger prize: electing councillors friendly to their cause and shifting the centre of power at city hall.
Alarmed at what they believe is a city council with narrow vision and a conflict-prone mayor, coalition members said they want to challenge Mayor Sam Katz and his allies -- first on the debating floor and later at the ballot box.
"People feel very strongly that there's a particular voice at city hall right now and (it's) not one that reflects the perspective of many folks," said Shauna MacKinnon, a coalition co-chair and director of the Manitoba office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a national think-tank.
"But no one's been really organized," MacKinnon added. "And so (the coalition) is bringing together all those folks who have shared a similar vision and looking at how we co-ordinate to get a different voice presented."
Chris Leo, a coalition member and professor of politics at both Winnipeg universities, ran down a list of issues with this city council that he believed has led to widespread voter disenchantment: business tax cuts "in the face of a very serious infrastructure deficit," the closing down of community centres and a lack of effective urban planning.
"We've got a range of ideas," Leo said. "I think there's a variety of reasons why people are unhappy with the direction of Winnipeg politics."
Leo and other observers are quick to add that the new group faces considerable challenges.
Winnipeg's political left, rife with many groups that could join the coalition's bandwagon for its political principles, sometimes lacks the ability to work cohesively.
"A lot of places I go now, I have noticed, there's quite a lot of dissatisfaction," Leo said. "So far, it takes the form of a lot of fragmented groups."
Moreover, past city councils have redrawn the map of municipal politics. Huge city wards make it difficult for upstarts to unseat incumbents, said Jim Silver, head of the politics department at the University of Winnipeg.
"The wards are so vast," Silver said. "This is a huge anti-democratic thing that we should have only 15 wards in a city of this size."
The coalition has held informal monthly meetings since last winter, and participants have spoken on issues such as rapid transit, community-centre funding and programming for aboriginal youth.
Coalition members said they plan to assemble a formal organization with bylaws and a vision statement, having looked at similar citizens' groups in Ottawa and Vancouver.
The coalition's website outlines ways the group wants to enter civic politics: form a shadow council, present an alternative budget, support political candidates, research reports and sponsor debates and meetings.
"Especially at the municipal level, we take for granted that we live in a democracy. And you sort of get what you put into it," said Tom Simms, co-director of the Community Education Development Association.
"We sort of feel we haven't been putting too much into it at the municipal level," Simms added. "So, we're going to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do in terms of influencing what's going on at city hall."
The city has not seen a citizens' movement since the group Winnipeg Into the Nineties was formed almost 20 years ago, in response to the same perception that the political right controlled city hall.
Winnipeg's left has always had a sizeable membership, but it has often fallen short of achieving prolonged political change, Silver said.
One reason, he added, could be that Winnipeg lacks multiple middle-class communities close to the city centre. Wolseley is the only neighbourhood that fits that category.
Other cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver, which have elected progressive civic governments, have many more middle-class voters living downtown.
"Winnipeg has a big inner city, which is characterized by very, very low income," Silver said.
The coalition's arrival however, could be the first hint that the 2010 civic election might be more of a battle than the vote two years ago that Katz won easily. Afterwards, he found himself with few council opponents.
"They could be successful," Silver said, of the coalition, "if they were to identify a couple of issues and really organize around those issues. Because I think that the current council and mayor are exceptionally weak and don't have any sense of direction at all. And I think it's likely that a majority of the population can now see that is the case. So, I think there's a space there for a citizens' group to make some gains."
A spokesman for the mayor's office said Katz had no comment on the coalition.
joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca
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