- September 23, 2015
McNally Robinson Booksellers and the University of Manitoba Press invites you to celebrate the Winnipeg launch of We’re Going to Run This City.
When: Wedneday, September 23, 7:30 pm
Where: McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Avenue), Winnipeg.
Cost: FREE
Featuring Stefan Epp-Koop and special guests Brendan Reimer & Judy Wasylycia-Leis. Light refreshments provided.
About the Book
This book explores the dynamic political movement that emerged from the largest labour protest in Canadian history and the ramifications for Winnipeg throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Few have studied the political Left at the municipal level—even though it is at this grassroots level that many people participate in political activity.
Winnipeg was a deeply divided city. On one side, the conservative political descendants of the General Strike’s Citizen’s Committee of 1000 advocated for minimal government and low taxes. On the other side, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Canada, two parties rooted in the city’s working class, though often in conflict with each other. The political strength of the Left would ebb and flow throughout the 1920s and 1930s but peaked in the mid-1930s when the ILP’s John Queen became mayor and the two parties on the Left combined to hold a majority of council seats. Astonishingly, Winnipeg was governed by a mayor who had served jail time for his role in the General Strike less than two decades earlier.
Stefan Epp-Koop received an MA from Queen’s University, has won numerous awards for his scholarly work, and is the program director of Food Matters Manitoba.
Brendan Reimer is Strategic Partner of Values-Based Banking at Assiniboine Credit Union Limited. He has previously been the Regional Co-ordinator (Prairies & Northern Territories) for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network and has taught in the University of Winnipeg’s School of Business and Administration. Brendan has been active in numerous local and national non-profit organizations such as LITE, Make Poverty History Manitoba, and the Social Enterprise Council of Canada.
Involved in public service all her adult life, Judy Wasylycia-Leis served as Manitoba’s Culture Minister before working as MP for Winnipeg North from 1997–2010. During her time in Ottawa, Judy was critic of Heath, Finance, Status of Women, Immigration and Persons with Disabilities. Judy resigned from her position as MP in order to run for the Mayor of Winnipeg in 2010 and then again in 2014. Over the last five years, Judy has been involved in democracy strengthening initiatives with the National Democratic Institute in Jordan, Kosovo, Pakistan and Tunisia.
