Law, government, and crime in Winnipeg


The municipal government of Winnipeg is represented by 15 city councillors and a mayor elected every four years.
Along with being the current provincial capital of Manitoba, Winnipeg has served as the capital for two other Canadian territories: the North-West Territories, from 1870 to 1876, and the District of Keewatin, from 1876 to 1905.
In the past, Winnipeg has garnered a reputation as the "gang capital" of Canada and, in 2013, the Canadian Police Association claimed that gangs were "a key and distinguishing feature of the urban landscape in Winnipeg." In 2019, there were an estimated 4,000 local gang members in Winnipeg—around 1,500 full members and 2,500 associates—spread out between 25 and 30 separate gangs.
From 2018 to 2019, the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area had the largest Crime Severity Index increase in the number of homicides in Canada overall. Winnipeg in 2019 also dealt with a record breaking year in homicides with 44 and a rise in violent property crimes. Two months before the end of 2022, Winnipeg broke its own record for the most homicides in a year, with 45 homicides by the beginning of October, and 53 being reported by the end of the year, giving the city a homicide rate of 7.1 per 100,000 people. In 2017, Winnipeg had among the highest number of police officers per capita among major Canadian cities.
Scott Gillingham was elected as the 44th Mayor of the City of Winnipeg after a very tight race against Glen Murray, on October 26, 2022. Winnipeg is also represented in the Canadian House of Commons by eight Members of Parliament.

Politics

Early years

Winnipeg officially became a city on 8 November 1873, with the passing of An Act to Incorporate the City of Winnipeg by the Manitoba Legislature. The Act would outline the essential powers of Winnipeg City Council, and provide a precise description of the city's boundaries :
  • Its southern and eastern boundaries were marked by the Assiniboine and Red Rivers
  • Its western boundary was marked by present-day Maryland Street, Notre Dame Avenue, and McPhillips Street
  • Its northern boundary was marked by Burrows Avenue, west of Main Street, and Aberdeen Avenue, east of Main Street.
With 4 city wards in total, Winnipeg's first civic election took place on 5 January 1874, for which voters had to be male; 21 years of age; British subjects by birth or naturalization; resident in the City at least 3 months prior to the election; and own property valued at $100 or more, or pay at least $20 per year in rent. William Nassau Kennedy was the acting City Clerk and Registrar for the first election, and found that only 398 residents of the new City of Winnipeg met the qualifications to vote. With this election, Francis Evans Cornish became the first mayor of Winnipeg.
In 1887, civic suffrage was afforded to women in Winnipeg, 80 of whom would be eligible to vote in that year's civic election and 476 in the election of 1888.

Modern era

Starting in 1900, in both provincial and federal elections, central Winnipeg elected politicians from the Labour Party.
While the norm in the city's early years was for local elected officials to be English Protestant males, others did win elections: Arni Frederickson and Arni Eggertson were Icelandic; Moses Finkelstein and Altar Skaletar were Jewish; and Theodore Stefanik was the first Ukrainian elected to City Council.
Women could not hold office in Winnipeg until 1916, after which Alice A. Holling in 1917 became the first woman to run for Council. In December 1920, Jessie Kirk became the first woman elected to Council. Kirk served a two-year term on Council for Ward 2. She ran again in 1922, 1923, 1926, and 1934, but was defeated each time. Rose Alcin ran as a socialist candidate for the Winnipeg school board in 1920 and was elected with labour backing.
From 15 May to 28 June in 1919, Winnipeg was the site of a general strike. The strike included violent protests, several deaths at the hands of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, and the arrest of many strike leaders, who went on to be Winnipeg politicians. The unrest was adapted into a stage musical in 2005 called Strike!, itself being adapted into a 2019 film directed by Robert Adetuyi, titled Stand!. Though it was not chartered until 1932, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation grew out of the post-WWI labour unrest, as well as out of the Depression. Its successor, the New Democratic Party, has enjoyed much support in Winnipeg since it founding in the early 1960s.
Following the general strike, Winnipeg city adopted a form of proportional representation for its city elections to elect councillors and school board trustees. The Manitoba government adopted the use of PR for election of Winnipeg MLAs starting in 1920. Liberals, Conservative and three types of labour men were elected in the first use of PR in Canada at the provincial level, in Manitoba's 1920 election. Socialist candidate Rose Alcin was elected to the Winnipeg school board in 1920. She was the first woman to serve in that body, and the use of PR also produced the election of the first woman MLA and the first woman city councillor in Manitoba's history that same year. The form of PR used was the single transferable voting election system. It was used for city elections until 1970 and for provincial elections until 1956.
The 1965 Winnipeg municipal election was held on October 27, 1965. On July 27, 1971, the City of Winnipeg became a unicity by amalgamating the Town of Tuxedo; the rural municipalities of Charleswood, Fort Garry, North Kildonan, Old Kildonan; the cities of East Kildonan, West Kildonan, St. Vital, Transcona, St. Boniface, St. James-Assiniboia; the old City of Winnipeg; and the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg.
The first election for the newly combined city was held on 6 October 1971. The City Council consisted of 50 councillors and one mayor. The use of STV was stopped, and the councillors were elected on the basis of one councillor per city ward while the mayor was elected by the city-at-large, all by the single-winner first past the post election system. The term of office was three years. The inaugural meeting of the new council took place on 4 January 1972. Since 50 councillors proved too unwieldy, the city wards were reduced to 29 in 1977. In 1992, the city wards were reduced even further to the present 15 and city councillors became full-time politicians.
On 22 June 2004, Sam Katz was elected as the first Jewish mayor of Winnipeg. He beat out prominent politicians Dan Vandal, Al Golden, and MaryAnn Mihychuk for the job by receiving 42.51% of the vote. This came after the resignation of Glen Murray as mayor of Winnipeg to run in the 2004 federal election. Katz was re-elected to a second term in the 2006 elections on 25 October 2006. After promising in his first election to run for only two terms, Katz ran for a third term in 2010. He was re-elected in the 2010 elections. Brian Bowman, the city's first Indigenous mayor, was elected as the 43rd Mayor of the City of Winnipeg in a landslide victory on 22 October 2014.
Winnipeg is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by eight Members of Parliament: as of 2019, the eight include four from the Liberal Party, two from the Conservative Party, and two from the New Democratic Party. Winnipeg's longest-serving Members of Parliament include J.S. Woodsworth, Stanley Knowles, David Orlikow, Bill Blaikie, and Lloyd Axworthy.

Winnipeg City Hall

Winnipeg 'City Hall' is the municipal government complex and seat of municipal government of Winnipeg.
Built in 1962–63 and officially opened in 1964, the current City Hall of Winnipeg is the third municipal administrative facilities to exist for the city. The Civic Centre includes four buildings that were completed in 1964:
  • The two individual buildings of City Hall, along with a courtyard in between:
  • * the Council Building, for Winnipeg City Council; and
  • * the Susan A. Thompson Building, for administrative works
  • Public Safety Building — former Winnipeg Police headquarters and remand centre
  • Civic Parkade
The Council and Administrative Buildings are joined by an underground corridor, which also connects the Civic Centre to the Manitoba Centennial Centre.

First Hall (1876–83)

During the initial two years of the city's incorporation in November 1873, city council meetings were held in various buildings in Winnipeg, including a furniture store.
Winnipeg's first City Hall was built for CA$40,000 in 1876, three years after the city was incorporated, and was located on Main Street between William and Market Avenues. Commencing in 1875, the building was constructed by Robert Dewar on top of a creek that was filled-in for that purpose.
The placing of the cornerstone of the city hall on 17 August 1875 was celebrated as a "grand civic holiday," with a large procession down Main Street to the ritual of laying the cornerstone. In the cornerstone, a casket was deposited, containing coins, bills, newspapers, and photographs of the city.
The building was formally opened in March 1876 with a concert in aid of the Winnipeg General Hospital. During these early years, the hall served as a multi-use building. Developing cracks in its walls shortly after it was erected along with other structural flaws for which wooden poles had to be used to prop it up, the building was demolished in 1883.

Second Hall (1886–1962)

During the construction of the second hall, the Mayor and City Council took up residence at 238 King Street in the newly built Coronation Block, which served as an interim "City Hall" between 1883 and 1886. In July 1884, the cornerstone for the second City Hall was laid. This new building, designed by architectural firm Barber and Barber, had a Victorian, Queen Anne Revival style.
The second Hall not only served the city government throughout its years, it also provided residence for the city's Board of Trade, the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba's library and reading room, and club rooms of the St. George's and St. Andrew's Societies. The building lasted just under 80 years, being demolished in 1962. While its replacement was initially planned for construction around 1913, the First World War would get in the way of these plans and not resurface until the late 1950s.