Some thoughts on ‘The Power 30′

The Freep published its annual list of the 30 most powerful people in Manitoba on Sunday. A few thoughts:

The Mayor at #15? Ouch. While I’m sure that Sam and his staff will claim they don’t care about lists like this, I can’t imagine they’re happy about the mediocre ranking. However, I think it accurately reflects his job performance — not great, not bad, just kinda so-so.

Ross McGowan at #12?? This seems a bit premature. While CentreVenture has talked about many interesting plans for North Main and Central Park, there isn’t anything to show for it yet. And as anyone who bought into McGowan’s condo project on Waterfront Drive (Ship Street Village) can tell you, Ross isn’t always great with timelines or budgets.

Too many government types. It speaks to the sorry state of our province’s private sector that so many of the people on this list are politicians or work for them in some capacity. First we have the elected officials: Doer, Selinger, Sam, Slick Vic, Super Soccer Mom, and Hugh. Then we’ve got Doer’s wonkettes: Angela Mathieson and Diane Gray. Manitoba Hydro (crown corporation) CEO Bob Brennan, and CentreVenture (quasi-government agency) head McGowan make the list as well. And finally there’s the former politicos, in the Axeman and Filmon. That’s 40% of the list that has some connection to government.

Old money speaks loudly. Aspers and Richardsons and Chipmans, oh my! Three families take seven spots on the Power 30. Add in a Riley and a Pollard, and the membership of the Manitoba Club is well represented on this list.

Rural Manitoba? Where’s that? Does the Freep send reporters outside of the perimeter anymore? While most of the big decisions in this province get made in Winnipeg, surely there must be at least one or two valid candidates for the Power 30 from among the 40% of the population that doesn’t live there. What about the Loewens of Steinbach or Friesens of Altona? How about the top dog at Inco in Thompson, where they’re about to spend a bajillion dollars on expansion? I don’t know who the big man on campus is in Brandon, but they must have some clout, no?

The Power 30, brought to you by all oldies CFRW. I realize that, generally, it takes a long time to accumulate power. However, is there no one in this province under the age of 30 that deserves to make this list? Heck, there’s barely anyone under 40 (Mathieson and McFadyen being the only two I spotted). At the very least, I think the Freep should run a sidebar highlighting the “young guns” or “rising stars” or whatever cute title they want to give it. And I mean a real list of young power players, not the random, pointless list of “5 to watch” they ran this year. [Speaking of which, in Dan Lett's column accompanying the list, he says there was a spirited discussion about including Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson on the list. WTF? He's a great lyricist for a great band, but when you can't even sell out the Burt, I hardly think you're in the 'Power 30']

So who got cut? I noticed there were many new faces this year, so I dug up a copy of last year’s list for comparison. Here are the 11 people who lost power faster than the west side Hydro transmission line (last year’s rank in parentheses):

• Frank Plummer (10)
• Pierre Blouin (18)
• Paul Vogt (20)
• Rosann Wowchuk (21)
• Tannis Mindell (22)
• Ryan Craig (23)
• Emoke Szathmary (26)
• Phil Fontaine (27)
• Holly and Paul McNally (28)
• Annitta Stenning (29)
• Don Plett (30)