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Young people weigh in on mayoral candidates

CBC popped into a local watering hole and talked to 25 people 35 and under about who they were planning on voting for, why and what candidates have done to stand out to them. Here is what some of them said:

Tara Tuck, 25 and Sheryl Muzyk, 35

Tuck and Muzyk are planning to vote on Oct. 22, but they do not know who they want to see as mayor of Winnipeg.

“I kind of haven’t been following it closely enough,” said Tuck. “I know of Judy Wasylycia-Leis and I know she’s NDP and was in parliament so that seems like a good choice,” she said.

After visiting Ouellette’s website, they decided he is a candidate that resonates with young people.

“It seems like he’s heavily involved in education. He’s a very educated person. He works at the university, I believe. It seems he knows what issues are affecting young people,” Tuck said.​

Leah Borchert, 23

Borchert is planning to vote for Judy Wasylycia-Leis on Oct. 22.

“I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time. I just generally agree with her a lot politically. I think really the main thing is I’ve been so excited for so long about the prospect of her becoming mayor,” Borchert said.

She said Robert-Falcon Ouellette relates best to young people.

“He’s really progressive. He has a lot of very specific plans. He tends to be fairly left-leaning which appeals to a lot of young people generally,” she said.

Matt Vickers, 28

Vickers is not planning to vote.

“I’m not really into politics,” he said before guessing the election is at the end of October.

“Judy something, something, something, and that’s it,” Vickers said when asked to name the candidates.

When asked about his decision to not vote, Vickers said if he voted he would be making an uninformed decision.

“I’d just be voting for whoever I think based on my friends or who has been talking about who they’re voting for so it’d really just be a throw-away vote, really,” he said.


Zach Siemens,19 and Mustafa Ali,19

Siemens and Ali said they consider themselves politically-minded and that moving out while going to university helped them understand the importance of voting.

“We understand how social structures help us out as individuals,” said Siemens.

They said Ouellette is the most appealing candidate from the perspective of young people.

“I am a reddit user and he’s done a few ama’s on there, which means ‘ask me anything,” said Ali. “His answers and solutions for some of the problems the city’s facing just I think are a lot more in touch with what the people need.”

Both Siemens and Ali said Ouellette’s aboriginal ancestry helps make him a good choice for mayor.

“Just as for the states having a black president is huge, having someone with an aboriginal background would be a massive step forward both for Canada and the city, especially with how much of a blind eye we’ve turned to aboriginal issues, especially in Manitoba,” said Siemens.

Both named three candidates (Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Brian Bowman and Ouellette), but they did not know the date of the election.



Janis Harper, 25

Harper does not plan to vote in the upcoming election, but she wants to.

“I want to vote for this one dude because he came and knocked on my door. He seemed pretty sweet but I can’t remember his name,” she said.

“He was like, kind of mid-height, slimmer, kind of balding. Gordon something? He seemed pretty chill. But my boyfriend wants to vote for Judy Wash-the-dishes or something. Actually he didn’t want to vote for her because she wants to raise taxes or some crap.”

Harper said she doesn’t expect herself, or young people in general, to vote in future elections.

“I totally want to vote, but honestly we don’t care. We don’t care to vote,” she said.