Mayoral candidates’ promises worthless without price plans

Klein also wants to deploy nine “advanced care paramedic” SUVs that will respond to the vast majority of wellness checks and low-acuity medical calls. This, Klein argues, will end the practice of dispatching a truck and entire firefighting-paramedic crew, which is costly and cumbersome.

Those are potentially solid ideas, but they still fall apart in two major ways. First, the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg union does not want to stop dispatching firefighters to medical calls. As a result, Klein has just lost the WFFW’s support.

Second, he rather casually suggests the province will pay for the advanced paramedic vehicles and increase in ARCC staff. No one can say that wouldn’t or couldn’t happen, but it’s unlikely, given the fact the NDP is fighting its own battle to control costs.

Polling has shown that Gillingham, not surprisingly, is out in front among committed voters. And turnout in municipal elections is so tragically low, it’s hard for other candidates to make up ground in upset.

Klein likely had the best chance to make this a legitimate two-horse race, but he made a couple of tragic mistakes. He entered very late, and he got into a mudslinging competition with another candidate for reasons that no one can explain.

Voters may not like Gillingham, and may curse the fact that there aren’t more legitimate candidates, but if more people turned out to vote, then this would be a better race.