Editorial: Three Manitoba Leaders Changed the National Debate

For most municipal leaders across Canada, the work of local government remains rooted in the day-to-day responsibilities that residents often take for granted: maintaining water systems, repairing infrastructure, keeping taxes manageable, and ensuring services reach those who need them most.

These are the issues that anchor municipal governance, the practical concerns that demand attention regardless of political climate. Yet in 2025 - and I would even say before that as well - amid these pressing local priorities, three Manitoba mayors have distinguished themselves by devoting the same persistence and energy to another issue that has increasingly dominated headlines nationwide: the urgent need for meaningful bail reform.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox, and Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett have become, almost unexpectedly, the central voices in a conversation that stretches far beyond their communities.

Now, over the last twelve months, as I travelled across the country meeting with municipal officials—from the Yukon to Nova Scotia—these three names surfaced unprompted again and again.

In rooms where no one had reason to bring up Manitoba, in conversations about crime, community safety, and court backlogs, their advocacy was cited repeatedly. Their insistence on highlighting the failures of Canada’s current bail system has resonated with their colleagues across provinces and territories, earning them a reputation as the most persistent municipal champions of this complex national challenge.

That influence was made even clearer when the Cross Border Network opened nominations for municipal leaders who had made a significant national impact in 2025. Submissions arrived from British Columbia, northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Atlantic provinces, and the remote North. More than half of these nominations pointed to the same three individuals: Knox, Gillingham, and Fawcett.

Such alignment is rare in a field as diverse as municipal politics, but their names appeared repeatedly—an unmistakable testament to how widely their work has been noticed and how deeply their message has struck a chord.

For years now, the Association of Manitoba Municipalities has been elevating the conversation around bail reform, and these mayors have served as the most visible and steadfast leaders of that effort. While high-profile figures like Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, and former Edmonton councillor Tim Cartmell have joined the chorus more recently, Knox, Fawcett, and Gillingham were sounding the alarm long before calls for bail reform became politically convenient or nationally fashionable.

They carried the message when attention was scarce, when media interest was limited, and when the federal government showed little inclination to act. Their advocacy predates the headlines.

In June, Mayor Knox told a reporter that Manitoba’s municipal leaders would continue pushing for meaningful bail reform even when their efforts didn’t dominate news cycles. She spoke of the ongoing work she and her colleagues were doing behind the scenes as part of their joint campaign urging federal action. Together, they met with representatives from the Department of Justice and Public Safety Canada, laying out their concerns about how the current bail system fails victims, communities, and even the offenders who are shuffled repeatedly through its revolving door.

Their message was consistent: something is deeply broken, and municipal leaders cannot ignore the consequences playing out on their streets.

Mayor Gillingham took that message directly to Parliament Hill. In the days leading up to the federal justice minister’s announcement of proposed Criminal Code amendments, Gillingham walked the corridors of the House of Commons, pressing the case for reform. In interviews, including one with 680 CJOB’s The Start, he emphasized what many Canadians have observed firsthand: repeat violent offenders who breach court orders should not simply return to the community without consequence. He also noted that while keeping violent repeat offenders off the streets is essential, the system must simultaneously offer better rehabilitation and support inside correctional institutions. Without addressing root causes, he argued, communities will remain trapped in the same cycle of harm.

Mayor Fawcett, who leads Manitoba’s second-largest city, added his voice with similar urgency. In a social media post weeks before the federal announcement, he stated that communities are “paying the price while the same individuals cycle through the system, reoffending with little consequence,” and insisted that it is “time to put our communities first.”

His message reflected the frustration felt by many municipal leaders who see the impacts of repeat crime not as abstract policy discussions but as challenges unfolding on their streets, in their neighbourhoods, and in the lives of the families they represent. Fawcett’s plainspoken clarity captured a sentiment widely shared across municipal governments: the people closest to the public deserve a stronger say in shaping the policies that affect community safety.

Their advocacy had an undeniable impact. In late October, when Justice Minister Sean Fraser delivered his speech outlining upcoming federal changes to the bail system, he directly acknowledged the efforts of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

In a political environment where municipal voices often struggle to break through, Knox, Gillingham, and Fawcett succeeded in ensuring their communities—and communities across the country—were heard.

The path to national attention is rarely smooth for municipal leaders. They operate without the visibility and resources of federal or provincial governments, yet they are the ones left to navigate the real-world consequences of legislative decisions. The cycle of trying to be heard in Ottawa can be demanding and discouraging. But these three mayors have shown that persistence, collaboration, and a willingness to engage directly with policymakers can lead to meaningful momentum. Their success is not built on rhetoric but on steady, continuous pressure informed by what they see in their cities every day.

And while progress has begun, their work is not finished. Bail reform remains a contentious and complicated issue.

Even with federal commitments now in place, legislation must still pass through the necessary processes, and implementation will require careful coordination between courts, law enforcement, and social services. These mayors understand that reality. They have never suggested that reform is simple or that a single policy change will solve systemic challenges.

Instead, they have argued consistently that the status quo is failing—and that communities cannot wait indefinitely for action.

The example set by Knox, Gillingham, and Fawcett offers a lesson for municipal leaders across Canada. They have demonstrated how local officials, even without constitutional authority over justice systems, can shape national debate by speaking with conviction and by grounding their advocacy in the lived experiences of their residents. They did not wait for political winds to shift; they worked to shift them. They did not wait for the issue to become trendy; they elevated it until others followed. They did not accept that municipal voices should remain quiet in federal matters; they insisted that the safety of their communities justified their presence at the table.

Their leadership is the reason they have been selected as the inaugural recipients of the CBN: Municipal Newsmaker Of The Year. This recognition does more than honour their individual achievements—it affirms the growing influence of municipal advocacy in shaping national policy. It signals that communities and their leaders deserve more credit for pushing large-scale reforms that might otherwise remain buried under political inertia.

But perhaps most importantly, their work represents a reminder that meaningful change in Canada often begins at the local level, with leaders close enough to the ground to see what is not working and determined enough to speak out until something does.

Bail reform may not be the only issue facing municipalities, but it is one that underscores how interconnected local and national policymaking truly are. A federal justice system affects every neighbourhood, every police force, every social program, and every victim. When that system fails, municipalities are the first to feel the consequences.

Canada is at a moment where communities are asking hard questions about safety, fairness, accountability, and rehabilitation. The federal government has now taken steps toward addressing some of those concerns, but legislation is only meaningful if it becomes law, and law is only meaningful if it is implemented in ways that improve lives. The years of effort put in by these three Manitoba mayors have pushed the country closer to that possibility. The next steps, however, depend on whether federal leaders follow through.

If they do, the advocacy work of Mayor Knox, Mayor Gillingham, and Mayor Fawcett will not have been in vain. If they do not, communities across Canada risk slipping back into the same cycle these mayors have fought so hard to break. Either way, the groundwork has been laid—by three municipal leaders who refused to wait for someone else to act.

Their example deserves not only recognition but emulation.

In a political landscape often defined by short attention spans and fleeting priorities, their sustained effort proves that change is still possible when leaders commit themselves to it fully. For the safety of communities and the integrity of Canada’s justice system, we can only hope more leaders follow their lead.