Minister to preach at political pulpit

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This article was published 23/10/2014 (4349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HE is used to preaching to the masses and Scott Gillingham will now have the chance to speak to the entire city.

Gillingham, an ordained minister, was elected the new councillor in the open St. James-Brooklands ward Wednesday night and his supporters had no doubt what swayed the vote his way.

“It’s his integrity,” said Carole Tattersall, a Gillingham campaign volunteer. “He’s just such an honest person who really wants to hear your concerns and do something about it. People could see that.”

Only 45 minutes after the polls closed, Gillingham was declared the winner in the St. James-Brooklands ward and will be a first-time councillor in the open ward.

Gillingham, 46, defeated Bryan Metcalfe, Stefan Jonasson and Fred Morris. It is his first foray into civic politics.

Gillingham has been a minister for 22 years and has served in several community groups such as the St. James-Assiniboia 55-Centre and helped launch the Westgrove in Bloom community garden project for residents of a Manitoba Housing complex in west Winnipeg. He received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Outstanding Community Service in 2013.

“I’m thrilled. We had a platform that resonated with the voters, we had strong endorsements and we had a great team of volunteers. And we were dedicated to a great campaign by a strong campaign manager,” said Gillingham, whose family includes wife Marla, daughter Hannah, 18, and son Andrew, 16.

“I know there will be a big learning curve but there will obviously be some changes in our family. I’m grateful for their support. We’ve come into this as a family. Marla, Hannah and Andrew are very supportive of me.”

Gillingham, the former lead pastor at Grace Community Church, is a card-carrying Conservative who ran for the provincial Tories in St. James in 2011.

On his website, Gillingham had said he will hold community forums in his ward five times a year to get ideas and feedback from the community about what works and what needs to be done.

At his campaign office on Wednesday, he stood behind that pledge.

“I certainly do mean that and that is the goal, to have community forums five times a year in different locations throughout the ward,” said Gillingham. “As the representative of the community in St. James-Brooklands I want to hear their ideas and their concerns and on the flip side, I want to communicate some of what is happening at city hall that maybe doesn’t get communicated to them through the media all the time.”

Gillingham, a former player in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, said his background in teamwork will play a strong role in his work going forward.

“Whether it was in sports as a player or coach, in community work or pastoral work, all of this was about team and collaboration. City hall is going to be about collaboration, working one with another, and I look forward to that,” Gillingham said.

He said infrastructure was a key issue in his campaign, one that he intends to pursue in office.

“The top thing we heard at the door consistently and that was at the top of our platform was infrastructure, repairing our roads and sidewalks, back lanes, sewers. These are aging and in dire need of repair,” he said. “The other thing that really resonated with people was my commitment to openness and transparency at city hall.”

He said the city cannot “have a repeat of the fiascos we’ve seen coming out of city hall in the last year” and he would use various mediums including his website, newspapers and social media to share information.

The ward was open because Scott Fielding did not run again after two terms, opting to look to provincial politics. He plans to run as a provincial Progressive Conservative against NDP MLA Sharon Blady in Kirkfield Park.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca