Manitoba Votes 2010: Elmwood - East Kildonan

Unofficial Results

Candidate	Votes Received
Rod Giesbrecht	3501
Shaneen Robinson	3705
Nelson Sanderson	236
Thomas Steen	3921
Gordon Warren	264

Parks, parties and bickering politicians top concerns

Talking with Elmwood-East Kildonan residents suggests there are a number of issues concerning people who live in the ward.

Manhattan Avenue resident Joanne Haaksma says the major issue facing the community is the state of repair at area parks and community centres.

Haaksma, 60, says: "I think the parks need to be cleaned up, I take my kids there and sometimes there's condoms and broken beer bottles there. It's just disgusting."

Lee McCarthy, 31, who lives on Moncton Avenue, also thinks that community centres are among the ward's top concerns. "There doesn't seem to be too many programs to keep young kids busy and out of trouble these days," he says.

Adam Johnston, a 30-year-old resident of Dunrobin Avenue, thinks that the decay of small businesses is an issue. "Elmwood is slowly decaying as a community, some of the small businesses are gone. There used to be a Robin's Donuts on Union Avenue that's now some cash money mart."

According to CrimeStat, breaking and entering is the biggest problem in Elmwood-East Kildonan, and McCarthy was recently victimized by the crime.

Elmwood is slowly decaying as a community— Adam Johnston

He says, however, that he still feels safe in his area. "I haven't lived here for very long but I do feel relatively safe here - it's safer than other parts of the city."

Lorraine Dorcas takes a different view.

Dorcas, a resident of Talbot Avenue, says she does not feel safe where she lives. "There are a lot of parties going at night and on the weekends, I think we need more police on the streets to patrol what's going on."

As far as how Elmwood-East Kildonan is represented at city hall, residents of the ward haven't been hearing much.

Darcy Hart of Kimberly Avenue says, "When I read the news I don't see a whole lot on our area in there," Hart, 49, adds, "I think we should be more active in city council."

Haaksma agrees, "I don't hear that much from city hall, I think our ward is pretty equally represented."

McCarthy weighs in on what he wants changed at city hall in the next four years. "I'd like to see more consistency among council members," he says, "let's get them on the same page and have less bickering so they can get more done."

Voter turnout in the 2006 civic election was 29.85 per cent, about nine percentage points lower than Winnipeg's turnout as a whole. With this election just around the corner, there is already interest among eligible voters in the Elmwood-East Kildonan ward.

"It's an important election for our city, I'll be voting," Hart says.

"I want to have my say, I always vote no matter what," says Dorcas.

Ward and candidate profiles by Sean Angus, a journalism major in the Creative Communications program at Red River College.

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By the Numbers

• Total population: 42,135
• Average people per household is 2.4
• Average income: $27,112
• 7.9 per cent of people are between the ages of 45-49
• 70.4 per cent of people have a high school certificate
• Voter turnout in the 2006 election was 29.85 per cent.

Background & Issues

Veteran Coun. Lillian Thomas is retiring.

According to Elmwood-East Kildonan's calls to 311 from Jan. 1 to Sept. 15, people's major concern in the area are the roads. 161 complaints were made about potholes and 151 complaints dealt with snow removal from streets. Other complaints include missed recycling and garbage collection and snow removal on sidewalks. In this period, 311 received and recorded a total of 1,056 complaints.

According to the city's CrimeStat website, breaking and entering is the biggest issue in the ward between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15. Residential break-and-enters top the list with 168 incidents while other break and enters account for 140 incidents.

2006 Results