{"id":759548,"date":"2026-06-25T05:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:22:26","slug":"waverley-west-coun-janice-lukes-wont-run-for-re-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759548\/","title":{"rendered":"Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes won’t run for re-election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes won’t run for re-election this fall, ending a three-term tenure at Winnipeg’s city hall.<\/p>\n

Lukes was visibly emotional when she made the announcement at a news conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“I want to go out on a high note of doing good work,” she said. “I want to be able to hand it off to someone else and for that person to pick up and run with it.”<\/p>\n

First elected in the St. Norbert-South Winnipeg ward in 2014, Lukes was acclaimed in 2018, when boundary changes created the Waverley West ward. She was re-elected in 2022 with 80 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, she told reporters she felt she had accomplished what she had set out to do when she entered politics, including securing a new $128-million recreation centre for her rapidly growing ward, which had an estimated population of more than 70,000 in 2024, according to a city report<\/a> \u2014 larger than Brandon, Manitoba’s second-largest city.<\/p>\n

She also highlighted her advocacy for active transportation infrastructure, both before and during her time in office.<\/p>\n

Lukes said she had hoped to cut the ribbon on the South Winnipeg Recreation Complex<\/a> before she left, but she felt it was on the path to completion and now was the time to leave, she said.<\/p>\n

“You know in your heart … when it’s the right time, and this is the right time for me,” she said, adding that she feels much of the work of building the ward had been completed. <\/p>\n

The area’s next councillor will need to focus on social development and ensuring residents can access the new amenities, she said.<\/p>\n

Lukes also encouraged more women to enter municipal politics, noting fewer than three dozen women<\/a> have served on Winnipeg city council in over 150 years.<\/p>\n

The councillor, who chairs the public works committee, thanked Mayor Scott Gillingham and offered to support him as he runs for re-election in October.<\/p>\n

\"AMayor Scott Gillingham hugs Lukes after she announced she will not run in the upcoming civic election. (Cameron MacLean\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Gillingham also choked up while speaking to reporters after Lukes made her announcement, praising her for her service to the city, describing her as a “strong ally” and “exemplary city councillor.”<\/p>\n

“There are very few, if any, councillors that work harder for their residents than Janice Lukes,” Gillingham said. <\/p>\n

“She’s smart, she’s a great leader, she’s outspoken,” he said. “And frankly … Winnipeg needs more city councillors like Janice Lukes, and especially more women councillors like Janice Lukes.”<\/p>\n

Gillingham said Lukes encouraged him to run for mayor in the 2022 election and endorsed him early in his campaign. <\/p>\n

He also credited her with helping to expand the city’s cycling network, calling it “ironic” that some of her most frequent critics were bike lobbyists.<\/p>\n

“We would not have a fraction of the cycling infrastructure that we have in the city of Winnipeg … if it wasn’t for Janice Lukes,” he said.<\/p>\n

City losing ‘a real fighter’: councillor<\/p>\n

Coun. Evan Duncan, who serves with Lukes on the Assiniboia community committee, said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by her decision.<\/p>\n

“My first reaction is that she’s such a strong supporter of Winnipeg \u2026 and after the general election in October, Winnipeg will have lost a real fighter,” the Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood councillor said.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Sherri Rollins said Lukes worked hard on issues such as safe student housing and active transportation.<\/p>\n

Lukes was “before her time” in many respects, Rollins’s statement said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes won’t seek re-election:\"\"<\/p>\n

Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes won’t seek re-election<\/p>\n

Janice Lukes says she will not run in the 2026 civic election, after 12 years at Winnipeg city hall as the councillor for St. Norbert-South Winnipeg and Waverley West.<\/p>\n

Lukes said she does not have any clear plans for her life after leaving city hall but did not rule out a future run for another political position.<\/p>\n

“I’ve also learned never say never, right? So I don’t know. We’ll see what the future holds,” she said. <\/p>\n

Lukes is the second incumbent city councillor to announce she will not run again. Last week, River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow said<\/a> he would not make a sixth run for city council, after first winning a seat in a byelection in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-759548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}