On Saturday August 9, 2014 our Politix crew sat down with Mynarski Incumbent City Councillor Ross Eadie to kick off our MYNARSKI BRAIN STORM sessions. Ross and his constituency assistant AJ chatted with us and shared some campaign promises as well as some proud moments from the past 4 years as City Councillor.
Our conversations began casually and revolved around some of the current issues, namely transparency, community safety and political literacy. We were also excited to meet with Ross again – as in 2010 we met with Ross as our Politix initiative was just beginning.
Campaign Song: Vote for Mr Rhythm by Ella Fitzgerald
Politix Role Model: Judy Wasylycia-Leis
Do you believe Council should begin with a clean slate after the election?
No. Ross believes that new leadership is needed, but not a totally clean slate. There have been many examples of current councillors who have done great work in the last four years. He pointed to the many collaborations he has had with residents in the ward. Ross was fundamental in moving the Selkirk Avenue Banners Project in 2011/2012 to become a reality utilizing dollars from his Councillor Representation Allowance to make that project a success. Leadership means leading by example, and Ross believes he has set a good example the last 4 years on council.
Labour Council Endorsement
MC has had an ongoing concern about Labour Council endorsement and asked Ross to elaborate. Essentially, it was explained that the labour council is made up of membership from unions. Ultimately it is the members of those unions who undertake a process (within their union) to determine and select candidates that reflect their values. Participation in that process is determined by your membership in one of those unions, if you aren’t a member, you likely won’t be priivy to that info/process. He also emphasized that candidates who want WLC endorsement must reach out to that organization as well. Ross did agree though, that since the WLC makes its decisions public, it could be a good thing to make the process equally as public too.
Safety
Ross has an acronym called the 3 Ps that he uses to explain his position on keeping our community safe
- Prevention – means we must address root causes like addictions, also means we support community centres to get youth involved in proacitve and positive activities
- Policing – Winnipeg Police Board is going to be involved in changing WPS for the better, more police on foot can build face to face relationships with residents
- Punishment – restorative justice when possible works best, must collaborate with different levels of courts
DID YOU KNOW? 56% of the City’s Annual Budget is dedicated to Emergency Medical Services (Police, Paramedic, FIre)
How will you engage youth in your campaign?
He will continue to meet with youth as they ask (as he was doing when answering this question lol). He also mentioned that he is taking time on the campaign to attend resident associations and other community meetings to engage with residents.
Participatory Budgeting – Do you support it?
Ross does support PB in principle, but wonders HOW we can make it work. For true engagement, Ross’ office would need more dollars and more assurance from residents that they would attend and bring forward their concerns around budget issues when they are or are not addressed. Perhaps what we need is a series of community meetings that educate the public about budgets and the budget process so we can look at this more in the future.
ROSS SPEED ROUND:
Check out the Ross Eadie Speed Round (part 1) below [Click here for Part 2]
Final thoughts
Ross is looking forward to working with a council that leads by example. He supported recent increases to office allowances in the wards because can use it at his discretion (ie. for community grant programs like the Selkirk Banners, or Bus tickets for North Point Douglas Womens Centre, etc). Ross wants the people of Winnipeg to know he loves his job and wants to be your councillor for the next four years!
Politix Brain Storm 