'It's a great day for Point Douglas': Vivian Santos replaces boss at city hall

Vivian Santos is the new councillorfor Winnipeg's Point Douglas,replacing her former boss and long-time ward councillor Mike Pagtakhan.

"I'm still in shock!"she said, laughing, moments after being told about her projected winat her in-laws house.

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Santos said she believes she could be the first female Chinese woman councillor in ward history.

She most recently worked as the executive assistant for Pagtakhan. Before that, the community activist worked on mayor Brian Bowman's 2014 campaign and was his legal assistant for five years.

"By far the best executive assistant I've ever had in my 16 years," Pagtakhansaid.

"This is pretty amazing," he said. "It's a great day for Point Douglas."

Santos entered the race 12 days after Pagtakhanannounced in Junehe wouldn't seek re-election. Pagtakhan saysafter 16 years representing the ward, he recently became a member of the Canadian Armed Forces is currently in training.

Santos praised himas a great teacher and mentor and promised to make him proud.

"Working for councillor Mike these last three years I've gotten to fall in love with the entire neighbourhood and all of Point Douglas,"anemotional Santos told a crowd of about 25 supporters at her campaign headquarters onMcPhillipsAvenue.

"I'm ready to serve the community."

'Learn from the best'

Pagtakhan and Santos are both avidarm-wrestlers withpenchants for competitiveness, and she dished out some gentle ribbing to her predecessor from the podium.

"I did learnfrom the best, so I feel pretty confident that I could be just as good or even better," she said to cheers fromPagtakhanand others.

"I would expect nothing less than to try and exceed the work that I've done," Pagtakhan replied. "I'll be watching to make sure she does."

Santos thanked her rivals KateSjobergand Winnipeg School Division trustee DeanKoshelanykand said she hopes to work with them moving forward.

Santos scored a comfortable 57 per cent of the vote (5,327 votes) to Sjoberg's32 per cent(2,936) and Koshelanyk's11 per cent(1,022).

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The race was in part focused on poverty reduction in what is one of Winnipeg's poorest neighbourhood.

A Winnipeg Regional Health Authority community profile suggested one-third of Point Douglas residents are low-income, while the median household income in the southern part of the ward was pegged at just under $30,000.

Free transit, new bridge

Santos repeatedcampaign trail promises after winning, including carrying on acommitment Pagtakhan madeto get a new Arlington Bridgebuilt.

She plans to press forfree public transit as a means ofhelping low-income constituents gain betteraccess to jobs.

Santos says reallocating a portion of Winnipeg property tax revenue would help cover free transit, and she suggested starting with a pilot project that gave people free rides on weekends.

"Let's test those waters, because right now our ridership is so low, and if we can increase that ridership and get people to their destination, you're going to see people are going to want to spend money elsewhere," she said.

Santos wants to securemore dollars for upgrading parks and recreational services as a way of keeping local kids out of trouble. To that end, she also plansto forman arm-wrestling program in the Weston-Brookland area of her ward, taking a note from Pagtakhan, who once started a North End boxing club.

Rival promises

She wants to use a portion of her budget to fund local non-profits,such as neighbourhood watch group the Bear Clan Patroland groups committed to helping newcomers.

Better support for local organizations was also an idea supported bySjoberg, an educational consultant at Louis Riel School Division who previouslyworked for the Spence Neighbourhood Association and North Point Douglas Women's Centre.

She said during the campaign that she wanted to reduce bus fares to their rate before councilapproved a 25 cent jump last December,and proposed siphoning money away from the Winnipeg police budget to help achieve that.

Koshelanyk, a Winnipeg School Division Ward 9 trustee andthird-time Point Douglas council candidate, touted greater job opportunities and access to education as ways to help some lift themselves out of poverty.

Crime, options for youth

Santos also pledged to improve area parks and expand both after-school andrecreational programming for youth who might otherwise get sucked into crime.

Her nine-year-old son Easton Santos and five-year-old daughter Summer Santosare both active in sports and music, and she and wants more options for kids like them.

"Get them into something, some sort of activity," she said. "I'm a big believer,if you keep them busy, it keeps them off the streetand out of trouble."

When she was door-knocking this summer, Santos heard some constituents who wanted better lighting in alleyways, parkadesand parks to help improve safety in some neighbourhoods.

'I can relax now'

Now that the race is over, Santos's husband and campaign manager Jeffrey Santos says he feels relieved.

"I can relax now," he joked. "I have full faith that she is going to do great work in Point Douglas."

Santos said she can't wait to hit the ground running.

"I am just dyingto work," the newly minted councillor said.

With files from Laura Glowacki, Bartley Kives andHannah Owczar.