During the Winnipeg City by-elections in 2004, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation wrote a commentary asking the question "Will the Real Dan Vandal please stand up " It stated how voters needed to know that Mr. Vandal was "a tax-loving interventionist who is blissfully unaware that the current regressive system is not working." At the time, he had resigned his City Council seat to run for Mayor, which was vacated after Glen Murray jumped - unsuccessfully - to federal politics.

As everyone knows, Sam Katz thumped Mr. Vandal. Everyone that is except, it
seems, Mr. Vandal and his tax-and-spend allies on City Council. And two years later, the 2006 election is shaping up to be a race about gullibility. Can Mr. Katz's opponents convince voters to forget that the last ten years ever happened

The unofficial leader of the City Hall opposition is Councilor Donald Benham (River Heights), a former Glen Murray staffer. At every opportunity, he criticizes Mayor Katz for not building Glen Murray's Bus Rapid Transit line as though that one project was Winnipeg's top priority. He described Katz's downtown business tax cut as a gift to "the Mayor's friends." He has even spoken out at City Hall about the need for a city sales tax. But now that Mr. Benham is up for re-election, he's suddenly changed his tune. His website says his top three priorities are to "rebuild our roads and bridges," "prevent crime," and "cut business taxes."

He is trying to pull the wool over River Heights voters. This is the same man
who promised taxpayers he'd contract out garbage collection to save $3-million.
Then he tried to kill a proposal to do just that on behalf of CUPE workers.
Why Mr. Benham says he voted no because the proposal would "only" save about $2-million, not the $3-million he'd hoped for. Today, he says he wants more federal and provincial money for roads, yet he mocked Mayor Katz's successful lobbying of Ottawa to let Winnipeg spend its gas tax money on, you guessed it, roads.

And then there is Mr. Vandal. After voters rejected his "Glen Murray Lite"
campaign in 2004, he drifted through two patronage jobs before deciding to
run against his colorful replacement in St. Boniface, Councilor Franco
Magnifico.

Like Mr. Benham, Mr. Vandal's campaign is a series of ugly flip-flops. What little record Vandal has, he's hoping voters will forget. The same guy who spent seven years in Mayor Murray's pocket now complains that Councilor Magnifico is in Mayor Katz's pocket. The same guy who cheered on a subsidy for a hog plant expansion in St. Boniface now complains that "there wasn't enough consultation on Olywest," even though the consultation plans for both projects were identical.

It wouldn't be so bad if candidate Vandal was criticizing the mayor's record for the right reasons. But his record prevents him from doing so.

Mr. Vandal might critique Mr. Katz and his allies for subsidizing Olywest with free land if only Vandal hadn't voted to subsidize other businesses himself. He could criticize Councilor Magnifico for securing piles of public money for low-priority projects in St. Boniface, like the Cercle Molière theatre expansion. But candidate Vandal claims that all of the projects were actually his idea. Councilor Magnifico, to his credit, also fought hard to save money or protect taxpayers as was evident with the Red Tape Commission Report. It is hard to remember Mr. Vandal doing much to save tax dollars.

Mayor Katz hasn't exactly moved at light speed to transform City Hall. People are right to push him to reform the city government. But the fact that Katz's team isn't fixing City Hall fast enough is no reason to ignore his critics' records when voting starts in October.