Fawcett first to declare mayoral candidacy

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This article was published 01/04/2022 (1445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first person announcing their candidacy to become the Wheat City’s next mayor is a familiar face.

Three-term city councillor Jeff Fawcett (Assiniboine) revealed to the Sun on Friday that he’s entering the race to replace incumbent Mayor Rick Chrest after first being elected to council in 2010.

Earlier this year, Chrest announced his intention to retire from politics after eight years as mayor while Manitoba prepares for municipal elections later this October.

With Fawcett’s announcement, there are now four people who have declared their intentions to run for municipal office in Brandon. Councillors Shaun Cameron (University), Sunday Frangi (Meadows-Waverly) and Glen Parker (Riverview) have all said they’re running for re-election.

“I want action, I want people to look at this election and have choices,” Fawcett said. “Consciously or unconsciously, we did have to convince our current mayor to run again last time. He was going to be getting into his 60s. We did twist his arm, but I did have a lot of discussion with a lot of people at that point that if he wasn’t going to run, they would have liked me to run.”

He had a lot of praise for Chrest, saying he’s “loved” working with him and he’ll miss the mayor’s presence on council. If Chrest was running again, Fawcett likely wouldn’t have entered the race.

Asked what his leadership style would be like as mayor, Fawcett even said he’d like it to be similar to Chrest’s.

“I try to do that at my business, I try to do that on my other boards in that you do listen to people,” he said. “I’ve never been the smartest person in a room, but almost every room I go in, I get to learn an awful lot because I do like to listen to people. I know there are people skilled and talented in things that I am not.

“That’s what municipal politics is; we don’t agree on a lot of stuff, but you always listen and you find the skillsets of everyone around you and use them to their strengths.”

Throughout Chrest’s tenure as mayor, the Sun has run editorials criticizing him for having a lack of forward vision for the city. Though he doesn’t believe things will change overnight, Fawcett said Brandon needs to better establish itself as Manitoba’s second-largest city

“We’ve always kinda been in that flux of ‘are we the largest town in the province or the second major city,’” Fawcett said. “The reality is, we are the second major city in this province. We do need to step up and make sure that we’re addressing large urban issues and representing our region.”

He said southeastern Winnipeg has been working hard on development with the province and Brandon needs to step up and become more ambitious to get similar results.

According to him, people have been asking again if he was going to run. At his business, D&B Sprinklers, preparations were being made in the event he might throw his name in the ring.

One of the factors Fawcett said led him to run for mayor is timing. He’s at a point in his life where his sons are 18 and 19 respectively and he can take on the job without missing too much of their lives.

“I’m in that right spot in life, sometimes timing matters a great deal.”

The councillor also feels he’s ready to put his experience in municipal governance and working with his council colleagues into practice.

“Over time, I’ve watched how the council itself matters and the people on there matter,” he said. “I really want to work with the people on there. They bring skillsets that I don’t have. You bring out the best in those people and you really get a picture of what Brandon needs when you listen to everybody on there. I think there’s lots to do with the new group with at least a handful of new people on there.”

When it comes to his qualifications, Fawcett pointed not just to his time on council and his experience running a business, but his work with the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council, the Brandon YMCA, the Blue Door Project, Helping Hands and more.

Despite being the representative for one of the city’s 10 wards, Fawcett said he’s always aimed his efforts for the city as a whole.

Those who watch council meetings regularly will know Fawcett is a believer in fiscal responsibility. Another factor in his decision to run for mayor is he thinks he can help the city balance its need to be prudent with taxpayers’ dollars while maintaining and improving services.

With the provincial and federal governments spending big during the pandemic, Fawcett worries extra costs might get passed down to the municipal level.

“We watched [former prime minister] Paul Martin as he fixed the federal government by hampering the provincial government and trickling everything down,” he said. “We applauded him for what he did for the feds, but it came down. We really, really have to watch that things don’t trickle down to the municipal level because it has nowhere to go but the taxpayer.”

In last year’s Meadows-Waverly byelection, fewer than 100 people voted. This time around, Fawcett would like to promote higher voter turnout.

He said he chose this week to announce his candidacy in part because he wants to give any potential candidates looking to fill his seat on council enough time to mull over whether or not they want to make the four-year commitment if elected.

“I think it is important that we have people run and you don’t have to run against someone,” he said. “You can just say ‘I also want to run, you’re doing a good job but I also want to run, I’m willing to put my name up because I’m at a good time in my life and if you choose me I think I could do a good job.’ I would expect people to run against me as mayor.”

Fawcett said he believes Chrest getting acclaimed — through no fault of his own — led to “embarrassing” voter turnout in 2018. He hopes a real contest for mayor this time around will improve turnout not just for council races, but for seats on the Brandon School Division’s board of trustees as well.

“I’m very excited about it,” Fawcett said of his campaign. “My family’s really excited about it … as much as I do want competition, the reality is I’ve entered the race because I intend to win it and I’m going to do everything I can to win, because I want to still participate and still grow things I’ve been working on, still continue to work with people I’ve been working with in the community.”

For the full interview, listen to next week’s episode of the Sun’s podcast “Sunny Side Up,” available at anchor.fm/the-brandon-sun, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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