Winnipeg Citizens Coalition

The Winnipeg Citizens Coalition was a nonpartisan, progressive civic group in Winnipeg modeled after similar groups in other Canadian cities. It was chaired by Liam Martin, the son of NDP MP Pat Martin, and future city councillor Cindy Gilroy-Price (now Cindy Gilroy), the daughter of Liberal city councillor Ernie Gilroy.
The group was founded in 2008 by Winnipeggers who opposed the mayoralty of Sam Katz. The group's founding goals were to bring progressive ideas into municipal politics, to engage more people on municipal issues, and to avoid unnecessary vote splits among candidates on the centre-left who were running in city council wards. Issues concerning the coalition included community-centre funding, programs for aboriginal youth, rapid transit, and urban planning. Organizing grassroots activists and recruiting potential candidates for council races was also a goal of the coalition.
The Coalition sought broad support from a large cross-section of Winnipeg, greater balance between the market and government, and defined itself as a moderately progressive organization.
The Coalition was successful on only one occasion. In 2009, it led a collaborative effort to successfully elect Liberal-Party-affiliated candidate, John Orlikow, against Geoff Currier, a local talk show radio host, in the Ward of River Heights-Fort Garry in a municipal bi-election. Orlikow's Campaign was managed by noted NDP organizer, Keith Bellamy, at the request of the Citizen's Coalition and Winnipeg Labour Council.
The Citizens Coalition was a year later to prove unsuccessful in achieving several of its objectives. During the 2010 general Winnipeg municipal election, the Citizen's Coalition was abruptly and controversially ended when one of its co-chairs, the Liberal-Party-affiliated Cindy Gilroy-Price, made the decision to run in the Daniel McIntyre ward against incumbent, Harvey Smith, and Keith Bellamy. Gilroy-Price's entry into the Daniel McIntyre council race further split the progressive vote in the Daniel Ward, undermining the candidacy of NDP and Labour endorsed, Bellamy, who had been making a bid for the council seat. The end result of Price's late entry was a near three-way tie among the three centre-left candidates and the narrow re-election of Council incumbent, Harvey Smith.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu