Urban forest, housing advocate first to seek Winnipeg council vacancy in Elmwood-East Kildonan

Bartley Kives · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 08, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

An Elmwood assemblage activistic who's pushed the City of Winnipeg to works much trees and let much infill lodging is the archetypal campaigner to travel guardant successful the Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection.

Emma Durand-Wood, a nonmigratory of the leafy, riverside Glenelm neighbourhood, registered her run precocious past week.

The Elmwood-East Kildonan seat connected metropolis assembly has been vacant since the decease of erstwhile councillor Jason Schreyer in April. 

Durand-Wood said radical acquainted with her assemblage advocacy enactment successful Glenelm encouraged her to tally for office.

"I similar to get involved, I similar to marque things hap and they person placed their spot successful maine that that I could beryllium idiosyncratic who could beryllium a bully representative," she said Monday successful an interview.

Durand-Wood is simply a writer and exertion by assemblage who was trained arsenic a room technician. While she does not picture herself arsenic an urbanist — she prefers to usage the word "localist" — she espouses several urbanist priorities.

She said Winnipeg has made a batch of advancement successful presumption of providing much backing for municipality forestry but indispensable marque much resources disposable to support and regenerate trees.

She besides said she'd similar to spot expanded hours for libraries, amended amenities for parks and for the metropolis to let much secondary suites — some to create more lodging and to marque location ownership much affordable done the instauration of additional gross streams.

Durand-Wood said she has nary governmental affiliation and does not see herself a follower of immoderate governmental ideology.

"I don't person a governmental inheritance and I deliberation of only what is close for the ward, what is close for the metropolis astatine large," she said.

"I deliberation to physique a large city, we person to beryllium capable to enactment with everybody, and I really, truly think everybody has common values, astatine immoderate point."

Elmwood-East Kildonan has successful the past elected councillors with governmental affiliations. Schreyer, who served from 2014 until his death, was affiliated with the New Democrats and the labour movement. His predecessor Thomas Steen, who served a azygous word from 2010 to 2014, was a nominal blimpish who voted alongside erstwhile politician Sam Katz.

Prior to Steen, the ward was represented for 21 years by Lillian Thomas, who was affiliated with the NDP. 

For now, Durand-Wood is the only registered campaigner in the Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection.

In a Facebook station connected June 27, the Winnipeg Labour Council said it has endorsed Carmen Prefontaine, a vice-president with the Canadian Union of Public Employees successful Manitoba, but she has not yet registered for the byelection in the vacant ward.

The deadline to registry and taxable information papers is Sept. 19. The byelection is slated for Oct. 25.