Nason wins Transcona council seat

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This article was published 24/10/2018 (2826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time since 2002, there is a new city councillor for Transcona.

Surrounded by his family and campaign team, Shawn Nason was emotional as results came in confirming him as councillor for the Park City.

“We ran the best campaign we could,” Nason said. “We got to a lot of doors throughout the ward. In the new areas we talked to a lot of great people, people excited to be part of Transcona.”

Nason won the crowded race for city council, edging out seven other candidates for the vacant position with 5,247 votes. The other candidates for council were Steven Lipischak, Ray Ulasy, Wally Welechenko, Basil Evan, Alex Allard, Sandeep Kumar, and Shane Geschiere.

With 2,345 votes, Welechenko placed a distant second, while Allard finished with 2,183, Lipischak 2,004, Evan 1,139, Ulasy 531, Geschiere 486, and Sharma 258.

“I applaud everyone that put their name forward,” Nason said. “You put yourself out there, you put your family out there. Politics can be rough.”

Previously Nason, 50, worked behind the scenes both federally and provincially. Until 2015, he was constituency manager for Transcona MP Lawrence Toet. From that point until he resigned to run for city council, he worked as special assistant to the provincial minister of Indigenous and northern relations and the Minister of Families. Currently, he is the basketball convenor at Oxford Heights Community Centre.

Subhdeep Sidhu, one of Nason’s campaign committee co-chairs, credited Nason’s victory to “door knocking, hard work” and Nason’s community connections.

“Shawn’s an approachable, humble, no-nonsense kind of guy,” Sidhu said. “You can talk to him, you could have a beer with him. He’s a community guy, and I think people picked up on that.”

Nason said it was important for him connect with residents in Southland Park and Waterside Estates. Both developments are new to the Transcona ward this election.

“Southland Park’s playground is old, and Waterside Estates has no park,” Nason said. “We need to address that.”

Nason told The Herald that as councillor, he hopes to reconstitute the Transcona Playground Renewal Association to work on issues related to public spaces within the ward.

“With all the new growth in Transcona, we need to make sure we have enough activity space in the community,” he said.

Other priorities he mentioned when he “gets to work down to Main Street” included infrastructure and transit.

“We need to increase ridership, but also make for a safe place for operators to work,” he said.

And while Winnipeggers voted against opening Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic, Nason agreed that the City has a way to go towards making public spaces more accessible.

“I voted to keep it closed, but we need to address accessibility needs,” Nason said. “We, as a community, need to do better.”