Cerilli’s politics are personal

Leading up to the Oct. 25 civic election, Canstar interviewed the mayoral candidates to find out who the people are behind the politics. This week, the final instalment of the series as reporter Bernice Pontanilla interviews mayoral challenger Marianne Cerilli.

For mayoral candidate Marianne Cerilli, the real reward of living a political life is leaving behind testaments that you can see, hear, touch and feel.

And nowhere is Cerilli more proud of her political life than when she stands in the middle of the Tall Grass Prairie Reserve off of Regent Avenue East or when she sits on a bench named in her honour along the Transcona Trail.

These projects, says Cerilli, are the fruits of her labour.

“This is 10 years of work from the time we started to when we got Tall Grass Prairie protected,” said Cerilli, as she stood at the entrance of the reserve during a mid-August interview with Canstar.

“It really represents some of my core values of enhancing our urban green spaces.”

Cerilli, 45, is no stranger to politics and, as a child, had an up-close view of her father Al Cerilli participating in the trade union movement.

From an early age, Cerilli said she understood politics and life were one – that principles are life-long commitments that envelop every aspect of your daily existence.

“It’s true that I did grow up surrounded by political organizing and it’s kind-of a foregone conclusion that I would be active,” said Cerilli.

“I was raised with the conviction that you don’t just stand by and watch when you see something wrong.”

In her 12-plus years as an NDP MLA for Radisson (1990-2003), Cerilli said her crowning achievements were the green spaces, because they’ll be enjoyed by generations of citizens to come.

When it comes to vision, very few would say Cerilli doesn’t have one. In fact, explaining her vision is what may prove to be the challenge with voters.

She espouses a political theory called eco-feminism, which at its heart believes the same forces that hurt the environment are also responsible for keeping women, and other minorities, marginalized.

In our current political system, productivity is measured with dollars and cents. It is an economic end, said Cerilli, adding that many types of productivity, such as child-bearing and the planting of trees, cannot be measured by money.

“In the future, we can’t continue this economic model,” said Cerilli, who has a young daughter.

“This top-down model has caused too much inequity, too much poverty.”

In the past, Cerilli’s passion has come across as abrasive, with political pundits likening her opposition style to that of a pit bull.

But this could be nothing further from the truth, said Gail A. Kauk, treasurer of the Transcona Trails Association.

“She’s not an enforcer, she has an idea and gets people with the same idea on board,” said Kauk, who has worked with Cerilli on the Transcona trail project for the last three years. “I was really excited to hear that she was running.”

Kauk added Cerilli’s style is to build bridges in the community and maintain those contacts.

Cerilli is who her group turns to when they have a question about a person or organization they should contact to solve a problem.

“She is very passionate about issues,” added Kauk. “She will work very hard towards that, but she is a very kind person.”

Cerilli’s list of ideas for Winnipeg is long.

She would like to stop urban sprawl, thinks the city needs more high-density neighbourhoods closer to downtown, more seniors housing, and wants to limit the power developers have at city hall.

She believes in public transit, more support for new immigrants and is against the hog plant proposed for the St. Boniface Industrial Park.