After winning his second consecutive term as Winnipeg mayor, Scott Gillingham says the city’s best days are still to come.
He had 39.8 per cent of the ballots cast, with all polls reporting just before 10 p.m. The second-place candidate, former city councillor and provincial MLA Kevin Klein, received 20.7 per cent of votes.
Software developer Noah Redden finished a close third, with 19.8 per cent of votes, while funeral director Mike Vogiatzakis garnered 9.7 per cent.
Redden saw his support more than triple in a public opinion poll this month, increasing from four per cent in September to 14 per cent, placing him on par with Vogiatzakis.
CBC projected Gillingham’s win about an hour after polls closed across Manitoba, at 8 p.m. He started off the night with an early lead that only grew as more votes were counted.
“It feels fantastic,” Gillingham said as he paraded through a crowd of supporters at his campaign watch party in St. James, shaking hands and receiving high-fives as he made his way toward the stage.
A former city councillor, Gillingham won his first term as mayor in 2022. He squeaked by on election night with 27.5 per cent of the popular vote, repelling a comeback bid by former mayor Glen Murray to win by only 4,391 votes.
Gillingham supporters cheer after he was projected to reclaim the role. (James Turner/CBC)
Gillingham said he knew he had a lot to prove after being elected by such a small margin four years ago.
“Four years have passed. You’ve seen me do this job. You’ve seen the decisions that I have made and the work that we have done together, and tonight, you have given me the honour of serving as your mayor once again,” the mayor said while addressing his supporters.
“I still believe our city’s best days are ahead of us.”
Nine new faces will join council after all the votes were counted — the most since Winnipeg’s city council was reduced to 15 positions, not including the mayor, before the 1992 election.
WATCH | Gillingham’s victory speech:
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham speaks to supporters after re-election win
Scott Gillingham delivered a victory speech to a room full of cheering supporters after he was re-elected as Winnipeg’s mayor Wednesday night. He won a higher percentage of the vote than he did four years ago.
Four incumbents — Russ Wyatt (Transcona), Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Ross Eadie (Mynarski) and Shawn Dobson (St. James) — lost their seats to Lora Meseman, Greg McFarlane, Natalie Smith and Kelly Ryback, respectively.
Gillingham was pleased with Wyatt’s ousting, but said he’ll still press the province for change to ensure councillors facing criminal charges go on leave.
Five of the nine new councillors were elected in wards where there was no incumbent candidate. Jeff Palmer won in Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, while Chris Sigurdson won St. Vital, Ray DuBois took St. Norbert-Seine River, Sara MacArthur took River Heights-Fort Garry and Jasmine Brar won Waverley West.
Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), Matt Allard (St. Boniface), Emma Durand-Wood (Elmwood-East Kildonan) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) are the six incumbent Winnipeg councillors who retained their seats.
Gillingham said he aims to meet with every elected councillor over the next two days to try to find common ground.
“The people of Winnipeg have spoken tonight … and my role as mayor is to work with every one of those people,” he told CBC News.
‘Hard to beat an incumbent’
With so many new faces on council, Gillingham acknowledged it might be challenging to fill executive policy committee, known by some as the “mayor’s cabinet,” but said new people means new ideas.
“I’m very optimistic about the future of our council.”
It would have been historic if Gillingham lost the race. The last sitting mayor to suffer an election-night defeat in the city was George Sharpe, who came up short in a narrow loss to Independent MLA Stephen Juba in 1956.
Gillingham and his wife, Marla, celebrate his win. (Michael Fazio/CBC)
A recent public opinion survey suggested that although Gillingham had more support than any other candidate, his early and seemingly insurmountable lead was nearly halved about a week before election day.
Klein, a former city councillor and provincial MLA, phoned Gillingham to concede at his watch party.
“It’s very hard to beat an incumbent,” Klein said, speaking to supporters as he conceded the election.
Standing next to his wife, Heather, he said he’s proud of how his campaign stayed true to their vision.
“Our vision was not for us. Our vision was for our children, our grandchildren and their grandchildren, and we wanted to build a Winnipeg that they would be proud of.”
WATCH | Klein concedes mayoral race:
Kevin Klein makes concession speech as CBC project Scott Gillingham re-elected
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Klein says he’s proud of the fact that he stuck to his vision for the city, as CBC projects incumbent Scott Gillingham will win a second term as mayor.
Gillingham said his first priority is to implement a new plan that would deploy community service workers instead of first responders to potentially thousands of 911 calls that don’t require a police or fire-paramedic response.
“That’s getting people the compassionate response they need. At the same time, we’ll keep cracking down on illegal behaviour.”
The city also requires an “ongoing, concentrated effort” to reduce homelessness, and needs more detox and mental health beds, Gillingham said.
“We have to stop taking people to emergency rooms.”
The mayor also plans to restore some bus stops near seniors’ homes, after they were removed during the overhaul to Winnipeg Transit in June 2025, he said.
“We might not get all of them back in front of every place, but we have to move to get some of them back in front of seniors’ homes.”
Mynarski councillor-elect Natalie Smith hugs supporter Andrew Kohan after unseating incumbent Ross Eadie. (James Turner/CBC)
There were 54 council candidates and more than 90 school trustee candidates in Winnipeg, the city said.
All Winnipeg races were contested this year; in 2022, two councillors won re-election by acclamation.
Voter turnout in the city has waxed and waned in Winnipeg’s six elections since 2002. The 2022 election that saw Gillingham first elected mayor recorded a 37.5 per cent voter turnout — the lowest since 2006.
Voter turnout was much higher in 2014, when Brian Bowman was first elected mayor, with 50 per cent of electors casting ballots.
This year, a record number of Winnipeggers took advantage of advance voting to cast their ballot, the city said.
New Thompson mayor
Manitobans outside of Winnipeg also voted for new leaders and councils.
Incumbent mayor Colleen Smook was defeated in Thompson.
Oswald Sawh has secured his first term as the northern Manitoba city’s mayor, with all six polls reporting as of 10:15 p.m Wednesday.
Sawh has served several stints as a city councillor since moving to Thompson in 1993. He was first elected in 2002 and served two terms, taking on the role of deputy mayor in both terms.
Smook became the first woman to be elected Thompson’s mayor in 2018. She served a term as a city councillor before gaining the mayor’s chair.
Two veteran politicians who served with each other on Brandon city council also battled to become mayor of Manitoba’s second-largest city.
Incumbent Jeff Fawcett emerged as the winner, with 54.3 per cent of the vote.
Fawcett was elected as Brandon’s mayor four years ago after serving on council for three terms. His opponent, Len Isleifson, is also a former city councillor and was MLA for Brandon East from 2016 to 2023.
Advance voting in the Wheat City set a new record in 2026, with more than triple the number of advance votes cast in 2022, far exceeding any advance poll held in the city in the last 20 years, officials said previously.
Up north, residents in Flin Flon voted for a new mayor after Mayor George Fontaine did not run again. Three names were on the mayoral ballot in Flin Flon.
In The Pas, Herb Jaques won a three-way race to fill the open mayoral seat. The northern town has been without a mayor since August, after Andre Murphy stepped down.
Jaques has served two non-consecutive terms as mayor, winning in 2006 and 2018. He didn’t run for re-election in 2022, when Murphy won.
Incumbent mayors in several Manitoba communities, including Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Winkler, Niverville and Selkirk, were acclaimed after no challengers registered to run.
Several places, such as the Municipality of Cartwright-Roblin and the Rural Municipality of Argyle, saw their entire slate of council candidates acclaimed.
Three Manitoba communities — Winnipeg Beach, Victoria Beach and Dunnottar — held elections earlier this year. Only one mayor — Penny McMorris, the incumbent in Victoria Beach — was acclaimed.