Sitting school trustees ended up on the winning or losing side of more than a half-dozen unexpected victories in Winnipeg’s latest elections.
There was no shortage of drama involving experienced trustees who were trying to defend their seat, regain one they’d lost in 2022 or enter higher public office.
Five incumbents from four school boards, including Pembina Trails, Louis Riel, Seven Oaks and River East Transcona, lost their re-election bids.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Five incumbents from four school boards lost their re-election bids in Wednesday’s municipal elections.
Among them is school board chairperson Edward Ploszay, whose 16-year run in Seven Oaks has come to an end.
Ploszay did not secure any of the four seats in Ward 3. Newcomer Lisa Brooks, along with incumbents Evan Krosney, Teresa Jaworski and Richard Sawka, will now represent families in Garden City, Riverbend and surrounding communities.
“This is definitely a unique development. I think we can trace it to some of the culture wars we are seeing in school boards right now,” said Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor of education at the University of Manitoba who researches school leadership and governance.
Hauseman said sitting trustees, along with other elected officials, typically benefit from an “incumbent bump” because of their experience and name recognition. While noting incumbents tend to provide institutional knowledge, boards can also benefit from new ideas, he said.
Something else that struck the academic about this year’s races was a new trend involving nominees teaming up in multi-seat wards to promote one another and save printing costs.
Louis Riel trustee Ian Walker turned heads and inspired other competitors after he recruited rookie nominee Anna Weier to run a “joint slate.”
Before this year, Alan Campbell, executive director of the Manitoba School Boards Association, had never heard about rivals teaming up.
Ultimately, multiple new faces, including Weier, will join each of Winnipeg’s English-language school boards following a heated campaign season filled with “parental rights” rhetoric.
Rookie nominee Timothy Giesbrecht did not win over voters in River East Transcona with controversial campaign signs bearing a rainbow flag that is crossed out with a red X.
“Everyone seems to agree that a lot of what we do in public schools has to change if we’re to best meet student needs and balance budgets and really meet the moment,” said Hauseman, who educates teacher-candidates at U of M.
“It just seems like there’s a lot of disagreement on what that change can look like and what it should look like.”
One oddity in this year’s election results is St. Vital’s outgoing city councillor engineering a job swap with a seasoned school trustee in Louis Riel.
Brian Mayes and Chris Sigurdson, childhood friends who both trained as lawyers, will exchange positions in the coming days.
“It’s one-fifth the pay so hopefully, one-fifth the stress,” Mayes said, followed by a chuckle and a caveat.
(Trustees are paid slightly better than that, but it was a catchy line he used to explain himself at doorsteps, he said.)
The 64-year-old took home around $140,000 per year as a councillor. He anticipates his new salary will amount to roughly $30,000.
He told the Free Press it was part of his “semi-retirement” plan and response to mounting frustrations at city hall. Mayes was a full-time laywer while working as a trustee in Brandon from 2006 to 2010.
Sitting trustees rising in the ranks to join city council proved to be a trend this election season.
Following more than a decade of trusteeship in Seven Oaks, Greg McFarlane defeated incumbent Devi Sharma in Old Kildonan.
Jasmine Brar, who is wrapping up her first trustee term in Pembina Trails, came out on top of a tight contest for Waverley West, Winnipeg’s fastest-growing ward.
Neither Linda Karn nor Craig Stahlke will return to the Pembina Trails board office. Rookies Janet Belluk and Terri MacLeod will represent Ward 1 instead, alongside 2025 byelection winner Samantha Pope.
Comeback campaigns of all kinds yielded varying results in River East Transcona.
Colleen Carswell, who was first elected in 1992, has further cemented her status as the longest-serving trustee inside the Perimeter Highway. One-term board colleague Brenda Bage was defeated.
There were two RETSD nominees with dusty resumés – Peter Kotyk and Jerry Sodomlak – who sought to rejoin the board after four-year breaks.
Sodomlak, who voluntarily took a hiatus in 2022, was unsuccessful, but Kotyk is resuming the job he held for 27 years before he became the centre of a code-of-conduct controversy in the lead up to the last elections.
Louis Riel incumbent Chipalo Simunyola placed last in a four-contestant race for two openings in Ward 4.
In 2022, the-then rookie won his first term by default because only two people put their names forward. Newcomers John Baert and Bethany Kolisniak took both seats this time around.
While there weren’t any automatic wins in Louis Riel this year, combined, city boards recorded a historic number of them.
Voters didn’t have an opportunity to cast a ballot in seven uncontested races in which 11 positions across St. James-Assiniboia, Winnipeg and Pembina Trails were filled after nominations closed Sept. 23.
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Seven Oaks residents experienced a rare situation in which a nominee was disqualified at the eleventh hour because he had died.
Derek Dabee, a four-term trustee from the Maples, was in the middle of mounting a re-election campaign when he had a heart attack Sunday.
“We extended our condolences to all those who knew Derek,” city spokesperson Tamara Forlanski said in a statement.
Forlanski said election staff posted notices in applicable polling locations and voting booths Wednesday to inform residents about the withdrawal.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
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