There's Something from Jenny - Part 2
Not as vulnerable as I would feel if I was running for Mayor of a major Canadian city. I can't imagine how vulnerable I would feel, having every move and every word analyzed and taken out of context. Perspective always defines your reality. For example, I could tell you that I witnessed a murder by the Superstore last week. That might bring up some powerful images in your mind. Then, there would be those who know that a group of crows is called a murder. That gives my previous statement have a whole different image in your mind. So, when I spent an hour with Jenny Motkaluk that was my biggest impression. She doesn't mind being vulnerable. She just wants an opportunity to explain herself fully. That is her biggest problems with the debates, they aren't debates. Due to the number of candidates, the debates are just a series of statements from the candidates. They are asked complex questions and given 45 seconds to respond. It is impossible. The microphones get turned off and your time is over. She doesn't feel that those forums show her in the best possible light. She says she is so much better 1:1.
The most surprising thing that I learned about Jenny in our meeting is that she cares. I wrote two blogs that weren't flattering about her but I felt they were rather mild compared to my usual blogs. I know that women are just generally treated harsher in the media, so I thought my critique was mild. But, what surprised me was that she really cared. I'm just an insignificant blogger but her team reached out to me immediately to offer me a meeting. It was important to her for me to write a positive review.
I had a small idea of what I was in for with Jenny. After all, she was born in Dauphin and a good Ukrainian girl. She didn't live in Dauphin long, but, it doesn't matter. All of us good Ukrainian girls from Dauphin have an incredible amount of confidence. I used to dabble in stand-up comedy and when I got heckled, I would tell the heckler that I could take ''em cause I'm from Dauphin. So, we're tough, but with Jenny, it was the confidence was off the charts.
I was really impressed with her strategic thinking. It is a little thing but when I arrived at her campaign headquarters, I wondered why she would choose such a little hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere (Ness and Moray). Then, I saw the brilliance. The campaign office has several office, kitchen facilities, multiple spaces so multiple people can be working on several projects at once, as well as a great backdrop for press conferences. That was one of my biggest take-aways. This woman is calculated.
When I asked her about the historic difficulty of defeating an incumbent for Mayor and that it happened since 1956, she simply stated that meant it was overdue. She then explained her path to success which started last fall and her and her husband and the rest of her siblings (she is 3 of 8) identified their pockets of stakeholders and felt they had enough support. Few of her siblings live in Winnipeg yet they are all here helping in some capacity. When she established her path to success, only one person would stop her. Her daughter had the only veto. Her 9 1/2 year old is the light of her life and her daughter wanted to her to run because it meant that her daughter could also grow up and become Prime Minister. She is proud of her daughter for shaking Brian Bowman's hand and wishing him well. That gives Jenny huge brownie points with me. I think one of the thing more parents should be concerned about is making our children better citizens. Good citizens make strong countries.
I thought I had a prepared question that was going to stump her. I inquired if the fact that her husband run for the Alliance Party was going to hurt her. It didn't stump her. She said that was 18 years ago and they have been married for 10. Most people's thinking evolves over two decades, however, if it hurt her, it hurts her. The bottom line is she loves her husband.
I thought I had another stumper when I compared her to the last woman Mayor, Susan Thompson. Susan had a lot of "heavy hitters" behind her and was rumoured to be beholden to their interests and not able to advance her agenda. Again, not stumped at all. She pointed out that the maximum that a donor could give to her campaign was $1500 and she wasn't going to beholden to anyone for $1500.
When she filed her candidacy on May 1, she thought she was prepared but it has been a steep learning curve. She said she thought was prepared but in the course of the campaign, she has unturned a lot of rocks, and has found a lot of nastiness. She keeps a binder next to her with all of her speeches and policy announcements so that she can refer to them and make sure she is consistent. One of the reasons she wanted to run is that she felt Mayor Bowman was too focused on his legacy and not focused enough on doing his job. She said he wanted to be known for opening Portage and Main and for BRT. She doesn't want to do something for the sake of doing something. She wants to do something that is part of an overall strategic plan to accomplish shared goals. We have too many serious problems in Winnipeg to do nothing in favour of big objectives.
She notes that the biggest difference between her and Bowman is that Bowman is content at making spending announcements. So many million for this, etc. She has no intention of making spending announcements, she wants to make outcome announcements.
Ultimately, she said the city has two functions; to buy things and to provide customer service. Both things are done poorly right now and in order to improve, strong leadership has to provide the role modeling. Quality Based Selection is a protocol for procurement in most industries and not used in the City. She agrees that there is a a staff of highly skilled professionals in City Hall and in order for them to do better, a culture shift will have to occur.
Yet, for all of her savvy, she is not perfect. She tried to control the selfie that I was going to use on this blog. Please. Everyone knows that the blogger will use the picture that complements the blogger the best !!
However, my biggest take away was that she cared. She cared about my silly blog. She has an impossible schedule yet she gave me an hour. That is impressive. I feel pretty important !!
The election is four weeks from today. As each day passes, I think it is more and more important. Yet, when I talk to people, many are still unaware that there is an election. Let's get the word out. It is only common sense.
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