As the calendar is about to flip to an election year in Winnipeg, the time is growing short for candidates to mount a serious electoral challenge to Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The former pastor and St. James councillor, who is nearing the end of his first term as Winnipeg’s mayor, announced back in July he will face voters again on Oct. 28, 2026.

This alone makes Gillingham the candidate to beat next year, thanks to the outsized role incumbency has played in deciding Winnipeg mayoral races.

The last sitting mayor to suffer an election-night defeat in Winnipeg was George Sharpe, who came up short in a narrow loss to Independent MLA Stephen Juba in 1956.

That means on the next election night, 70 years will have transpired since the last sitting mayor in this city failed to take advantage of

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