Durand-Wood wins Elmwood-East Kildonan council seat in decisive byelection victory

A community activist and volunteer will be the next city councillor for Elmwood-East Kildonan.

Emma Durand-Wood soundly won a byelection to claim the seat on Saturday, with 1,567 votes, or 31.48 per cent of those cast, according to results posted on the City of Winnipeg’s website. The runner-up, construction project manager Abel Gutierrez, received 887 votes.

“This has just been the absolute craziest experience of my life. I want to thank all the over 100 people who volunteered for our campaign, including the 50 people who helped out today,” Durand-Wood told a crowd of several dozen cheering supporters at the Elmwood Curling Club Saturday night.

The council seat was left vacant after the death of Coun. Jason Schreyer in April.

Durand-Wood, 44, entered her first political race after volunteering with the Glenelm Neighbourhood Association, Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corp., Elmwood Business Coalition and the Trees Please Winnipeg Coalition. She is also a freelance writer and editor.

Durand-Wood recently listed her top priorities for the ward as: tackling poverty to prevent crime, especially by improved access to affordable housing and groceries; increasing frequency on Winnipeg Transit routes; and boosting spending on community and public services, such as recreation programs.

“To the people of Elmwood-East Kildonan, for joining us, joining our campaign for a vision of a stronger, happier, more connected community, I’m really excited to get to work and it’s an honour to have been chosen,” she said.

Durand-Wood said she would support cancelling some spending on megaprojects to help pay for her priorities, such as the expansions of Kenaston Boulevard/ Route 90 and the Chief Peguis Trail. Those projects are each expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The first candidate to enter the race, Durand-Wood said she and her volunteers managed to knock on nearly every door in the ward.

“There were a very small stretch of houses and some apartment blocks that that we couldn’t get into. But (we reached) well over 17,000 (homes) … I had an amazing team of doorknockers and we started in July and we were going up until Thursday,” Durand-Wood told reporters following her speech.

She was endorsed by former mayoral candidate Shaun Loney, writer Erna Buffie and Vivienne Ho, CUPE Local 2348 president and advocacy chair for the Institute for International Women’s Rights Manitoba.

Six other candidates competed in the byelection, including Gutierrez, road safety researcher Chris Sweryda, automotive finance broker Braydon Mazurkiewich, child-care assistant Zekaria Selahadin, city planning property and development clerk Kyle Roche and city safety, health and wellness administrative assistant Carmen Prefontaine.

Durand-Wood thanked her competitors for running honest campaigns, stating she was “overwhelmed and humbled” by her win.

“Our platform and our ideas resonated with people, (with) a message of positivity and working towards solutions and optimism,” said Durand-Wood.

Byelections were also held to elect two new school trustees on Saturday.

Samantha Pope won 32 per cent of the vote to become a Ward 1 trustee in the Pembina Trails School Division. Former Manitoba education minister Peter Bjornson was elected to become a Ward 3 trustee in the Louis Riel School Division.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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