Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray to announce decision on making another run

Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray says he'll announce his decision Wednesday on whether or not he wants another chance at the job.

There has been speculation about whether Murray will enter the 2022 race to replace Mayor Brian Bowman, and his name has come up in recent mayoral polls.

In an interview Tuesday, the city's former leader said Winnipeg has regressed over the past four years to the point where it now faces some of the same financial challenges it did when he first became mayor in 1998.

"I think the city has more potential than it ever has," Murray said. "I'm very optimistic about the future of the city, but I don't think the city has ever faced such great challenges."

Murray was Winnipeg's mayor from 1998 to 2004, when he resigned to run for the federal Liberal party.

He lost that race, but was elected a Liberal member of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario in 2011. During that time, he held different cabinet positions until 2017, when he resigned and briefly left politics.

In 2020, Murray ran to replace Elizabeth May as the leader of the federal Green Party, but lost.

In 2018, he endorsed Bowman's re-election campaign. The current mayor is not running again this fall.

At that time, Murray said he didn't want to run for any level of office in Manitoba.

Now, that may have changed.

Murray said he's talked with 75 to 100 people over the past few months to gauge whether he has support from business, labour, social, environmental, cultural and Indigenous communities.

"I don't think the next mayor can do this on his own," he said.

"Whoever does best is going to have to be prepared to build a broad coalition of community leaders, to really renegotiate arrangements with the province, and to really start to deliver solutions, because the city is going to have the challenge that it can't fix itself."

Murray said during those conversations, many people brought up the city's financial situation. He said when he was first elected, the city had a low credit rating and high debt. He said he cut debt in half and brought in the gas tax to support infrastructure costs.

Murray said he also addressed Indigenous land claim issues, downtown concerns and worries about suburban infrastructure.

"Those people came to me and said, 'We're right back with those situations. And we want someone who has the experience,'" he said.

"So I sat down with them and listened to them, because it is so much worse than it was four years ago."

Murray said he is only considering entering the race now because he was attending to his elderly mother's housing situation.

If he does register his mayoral campaign, he will be the 11th person to do so.

The 10 candidates who have already registered are Idris Adelakun, Chris Clacio, Rana Bokhari, Scott Gillingham, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Rick Shone, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock. 

Winnipeg's municipal election is Oct. 26.