Candidate juggling too many balls

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This article was published 23/09/2014 (4124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A candidate running in the Daniel McIntyre ward says he’s not sure he wants to be a city councillor if it means giving up his job as a CFL official.

Dave Donaldson, a former defensive back for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, registered to run in the inner-city ward the day before nominations closed and months after most of his five challengers. His foray into politics was seen as a game changer in a too-close-to-call ward where five people are now trying to unseat Coun. Harvey Smith.

But Donaldson says he’s conflicted about serving on council because the CFL’s conflict-of-interest provisions say he must give up his role as a referee if he wins in order to maintain the perception and practice of fairness on the field.

“I’m torn right now because I love football and I love the neighbourhood I grew up in,” Donaldson said Monday. “It pains me not to officiate, but I’m willing to sacrifice everything.”

Donaldson said he worked for seven years reffing at an amateur level to make it to the CFL. He said he originally thought he’d be able to be a councillor and continue officiating. Recent discussions with the CFL’s vice-president of officiating made it clear the league wants to avoid any allegation Donaldson might be altering calls to curry favour with West End voters, or might be in a more direct conflict once elected.

“We have every faith in Dave’s integrity, but you have to guard against the perceived conflict,” said Matt Maychak, the CFL’s vice-president of communications and broadcast.

Donaldson says the league is everything to him and he will honour the CFL’s wishes. He has voluntarily given up officiating during the campaign period.

“My job as an official is now in jeopardy,” he said.

Despite the late start, Donaldson said he has started knocking on doors, though he concedes he’s significantly behind the other major campaigns.

Most of the ward’s other candidates have already plastered the neighbourhood with signs, opened offices and knocked on hundreds of doors.

Candidate Keith Bellamy has released his entire platform.

SSLqI’m torn right now because I love football and I love the neighbourhood I grew up in’

— Dave Donaldson

Daniel McIntyre is among the wards to watch on election night, largely because two well-funded and well-organized candidates are trying again to unseat Harvey Smith, one of council’s longest-serving members. Bellamy, formerly NDP MP Pat Martin’s riding assistant and now the Winnipeg Folk Festival’s development manager, has the support of a significant number of New Democrats. The other top challenger, Cindy Gilroy, is NDP cabinet minister Kevin Chief’s riding assistant in Point Douglas and has the support of some New Democrats and many Liberals.

In 2010, Smith narrowly defeated Gilroy. Bellamy placed a close third.

Also seeking the Daniel McIntyre council seat are insurance broker John Cardoso, who ran in 2010, and Godwin Smith.

Donaldson has only a bare-bones website, no signs and few volunteers. Two Liberals — former provincial party president Robert Young and strategist Dave Shorr — are helping Donaldson. It is too late for Donaldson to withdraw formally from the race. The ballot has already been set. But he said if he decides to stop campaigning, he’d back Smith, even though the ward appears to have deteriorated in recent years.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca