After winning his second consecutive term as Winnipeg mayor, Scott Gillingham says the city’s best days are still to come.
He had 39.8 per cent of the ballots cast, with all polls reporting just before 10 p.m. The second-place candidate, former city councillor and provincial MLA Kevin Klein, received 20.7 per cent of votes,
Software developer Noah Redden finished a close third, with 19.8 per cent of votes.
CBC projected Gillingham’s win about an hour after polls closed across Manitoba, at 8 p.m.
“It feels fantastic,” Gillingham said as he paraded through a crowd of supporters at his campaign watch party in St. James, shaking hands and receiving high-fives as he made his way toward the stage.
Gillingham said he knew he had a lot to prove after being elected by such a small margin four years ago.
“Four years have passed. You’ve seen me do this job. You’ve seen the decisions that I have made and the work that we have done together, and tonight, you have given me the honour of serving as your mayor once again,” the mayor said, addressing his supporters.
“I still believe our city’s best days are ahead of us.”
A former city councillor, Gillingham won his first term as mayor in 2022. He squeaked by on election night with 27.5 per cent of the popular vote, repelling a comeback bid by former mayor Glen Murray to win by only 4,391 votes.
Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), Matt Allard (St. Boniface), Emma Durand-Wood (Elmwood-East Kildonan) and Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) are the incumbent Winnipeg councillors who retained their seats.
Nine new faces will join city council, after four incumbents — Russ Wyatt (Transcona), Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Shawn Dobson (St. James) and Ross Eadie (Mynarski) — lost their seats to Lora Meseman, Greg McFarlane, Kelly Ryback and Natalie Smith, respectively.
Scott Gillingham supporters cheer after the incumbent mayor was projected to reclaim the role. (James Turner/CBC)
Jeff Palmer has won Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, Chris Sigurdson has won St. Vital, Ray DuBois has taken St. Norbert-Seine River, Sara MacArthur has won River Heights-Fort Garry and Jasmine Brar has won Waverley West.
It would have been historic if Gillingham lost the race. The last sitting mayor to suffer an election-night defeat in the city was George Sharpe, who came up short in a narrow loss to Independent MLA Stephen Juba in 1956.
A recent public opinion survey suggested that although Gillingham had more support than any other candidate, his early and seemingly insurmountable lead was nearly halved about a week before election day.
Klein, a former city councillor and provincial MLA, phoned Gillingham to concede at his watch party.
“It’s very hard to beat an incumbent,” Klein said, speaking to supporters as he conceded the election.
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Klein says he’s proud of the fact that he stuck to his vision for the city, as CBC projects incumbent Scott Gillingham will win a second term as mayor.
Standing next to his wife, Heather, he said he’s proud of how his campaign stayed true to their vision.
“Our vision was not for us. Our vision was for our children, our grandchildren and their grandchildren, and we wanted to build a Winnipeg that they would be proud of.”
There are 54 council candidates and more than 90 school trustee candidates in Winnipeg, the city said.
All Winnipeg races were contested this year; in 2022, two councillors won re-election by acclamation.
Ray DuBois will join city council for the first time after winning Winnipeg’s St. Norbert-Seine River ward. (Amine Ellatify/Radio-Canada)
Voter turnout in the city has waxed and waned in Winnipeg’s six elections since 2002. The 2022 election that saw Gillingham first elected mayor recorded a 37.5 per cent voter turnout — the lowest since 2006.
Voter turnout was much higher in 2014, when Brian Bowman was first elected mayor, with 50 per cent of electors casting ballots.
This year, a record number of Winnipeggers took advantage of advance voting to cast their ballot, the city said.
Elections outside of Winnipeg
Manitobans outside of Winnipeg also voted for new leaders and councils.
Incumbent mayors in several Manitoba communities, including Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Winkler, Niverville and Selkirk, were acclaimed after no challengers registered to run.
Several places, such as the Municipality of Cartwright-Roblin and the Rural Municipality of Argyle, saw their entire slate of council candidates acclaimed.
Two veteran politicians who served with each other on Brandon city council are battling to become mayor of Manitoba’s second-largest city.
Incumbent Jeff Fawcett was elected Brandon mayor four years ago, after serving on council for three terms. His opponent, Len Isleifson, is also a former city councillor and was MLA for Brandon East from 2016 to 2023.
Advance voting in the Wheat City also set a new record in 2026, with more than triple the number of advance votes cast in 2022, far exceeding any advance poll held in the city in the last 20 years, officials said previously.
Up north, residents in Flin Flon voted for a new mayor after Mayor George Fontaine did not run again. Three names were on the mayoral ballot in Flin Flon.
In The Pas, three candidates are also battling for an open mayor’s seat. The northern town has been without a mayor since August, after Andre Murphy stepped down from the job.
Incumbent Colleen Smook faced two challengers in Thompson’s mayoral race.
Three Manitoba communities — Winnipeg Beach, Victoria Beach and Dunnottar — held elections earlier this year. Only one mayor — Penny McMorris, the incumbent in Victoria Beach — was acclaimed.
