‘A matter of priorities and choices’

Crescentwood

Osborne Village

Winnipeg

When it comes to building a more equitable transit network here in Winnipeg, a few pieces of the puzzle are no-brainers.

“More buses, more routes, more access to everyone,” sings John Samson Fellows on 50/50 Funding, a new Vivat Virtute track that was released on June 15, as part of the Climate Action Team’s Next Stop 50-50 campaign. “We need 50/50 funding for a greener, for a fairer, we need 50/50 funding for a friendly Manitoba.”

Easy-peasy, right? So, what’s the hold up?

To paraphrase the late Lefty Frizzell, it’s all about the money, buddy.

In the 1970s, the provincial government brought in a 50-50 funding agreement with municipalities to bolster local transit systems. That agreement was axed in 1993 by the Progressive Conservative government of the time. An NDP government brought it back in 2007, only to have it killed again a decade later by the Pallister government of the day. At the time, the NDP opposition called loudly for it to be re-instituted.

However, since the Kinew government came to power in 2023, no move to do so has been taken. Currently, the province funds transit to the tune of $42 million each year. Meanwhile, Winnipeg Transit projected more than $18 million in reduced revenues this year. Clearly, something’s gotta give.

“It’s a matter of priorities and choices,” Laura Cameron, director of programs and strategy with the Climate Action Team, added. “Both levels of government have a role to play.”

In May, the Climate Action Team, working in partnership with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 and an array of other local organizations and unions, launched the Next Stop 50-50 campaign, calling on both provincial and municipal governments in Manitoba to beef up funding for transit. The new campaign was launched ahead of upcoming municipal elections across Manitoba, with an eye on pressuring candidates to take investment in transit seriously.

“A couple of months ago we asked John if he would be interested in supporting the campaign with a theme song of sorts,” Cameron said. “We were very excited that he said, ‘yes.’”

“It was fun,” Samson Fellows said, while taking brief shelter from a spring storm pouring down outside of Little Sister in Osborne Village. “I wanted it to be sort of like a jingle, like an ‘80s TV jingle in my mind. It didn’t really turn out that way. I wanted it to be short and to the point.”

As a lifelong transit rider, the experience of riding a bus in Winnipeg appears in more than one of his tunes. A verse from 2003’s iconic One Great City! is devoted to the drudgery of riding a packed bus that’s perpetually late, while the narrator to the 2007 Weakerthans number Civil Twilight is a bus driver whose route takes him past the home he shared with an ex. In 2000’s, Exiles Among You — a song from which this column’s name, Hopelessly Hopeful, is also lifted — he sings his “fury’s rising faster than bus fares.” Andon Gifts, from Propagandhi’s classic 1996 record Less Talk, More Rock, he introduced the now-defunct 18 North Main route to punk rockers around the world.

While Samson Fellows has mostly eschewed the musical spotlight over the past decade, the work he has released with his partner and fellow artist Christine Fellows under the Vivat Virtute banner has been pointedly political and unapologetically local — even more so than his previous work.

“Writing about community is really important,” Samson, a Crescentwood resident and devoted cyclist who got right soaked on the way to and from our interview, said. “It’s been my focus for the past 10 years, trying to have songs emerge from my concerns and the concerns of my community. When I do want to write a song that is for something like this, I like the limits of having to write about something, the challenge of trying to fit some ideas into two minutes is exciting to me. I’d always wanted to sing the words Flin Flon and had never been able to, so that was another bonus for me.”

Both Samson Fellows and Cameron have seen the impacts diminished funding has resulted in firsthand.

“Transit is something that is part of our lives, and I think we all see how it could be better,” Cameron said. “I think this song does a great job of bringing that hopeful tone to this, especially amidst the challenges we see.”

“There’s this thing we all run into in Winnipeg, that it can’t happen here,” Samson Fellows added. “That it’s just like … This is Winnipeg, for some reason we should just put up with a lack of service, a lack of infrastructure, and a lack of investment in actual humans instead of businesses and roads and police. This is a chance for us to push back against that idea. We can make a better Winnipeg together. It’s not that hard. I’d just say, let’s do that.”

Those interested in learning more can visit NextStop5050.ca for more information. To hear the new song, visit Vivat Virtute on Bandcamp.com

Hopelessly Hopeful is a semi-regular column that puts the spotlight on local folks and grassroots organizations working to make Winnipeg a better place in creative and joyful ways.