Tank: Cynthia Block offers change, continuity for Saskatoon

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After 28 consecutive men as Saskatoon mayor, a woman represents the most radical change imaginable.

But Cynthia Block also offers continuity for a growing community that continues to vastly outperform the province where it’s located in economic and population growth. And Saskatoon voters have traditionally backed continuity on council.

Block is expected to announce today that she plans to run for Saskatoon mayor, becoming the first woman serving as a city councillor to campaign for the top job in nearly a quarter century.

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Only two previous sitting councillors, who also happened to be women, have launched bids for mayor in Saskatoon — Evelyn Edwards in a rare mayoral byelection in 1972, and Donna Birkmaier in 1988 and 2000.

Edwards finished a distant second, while Birkmaier finished third in her first try and in second place 12 years later.

The other nine women who ran for Saskatoon mayor came from outside city hall, although Lenore Swystun served one term as a councillor before campaigning for mayor in two straight elections after her defeat in 2003, ironically to Birkmaier.

Block represents the best opportunity yet for a woman to claim city hall’s top job. Beyond her success as a politician — she easily defeated a challenger who actually outspent her four years ago to win re-election — she brings familiarity from her time as a TV news anchor in Saskatoon.

That affords her a comfort level with residents that few challengers will be able to match. And, as a former broadcast journalist, she has perhaps unrivalled communication skills. She also runs a communication business.

Block has situated herself as a centrist on council, aligned with neither her left-leaning nor right-leaning colleagues, although she’s probably cast more votes with the lefties.

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Most residents in Saskatoon likely identify with the centre, but Saskatchewan remains a highly polarized province. And Block may not excite either the left or the right to the extent that they will donate to her campaign or mobilize for her.

Block ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals in 2015, but former Saskatchewan Party cabinet minister Gord Wyant, who is expected to run against Block, also once supported the Trudeau Liberals.

Her intention to run has been widely known for months, yet rumours persist of NDP-aligned folks trying first to draft Coun. Hilary Gough, who just announced she will not run again, and now veteran Coun. Mairin Loewen.

Gough and Loewen almost always vote with departing Mayor Charlie Clark or for initiatives too far left for Clark to support, like Loewen’s widely panned attempt to shift the tax burden from residents to businesses in last year’s budget talks.

Block will need to defend the six per cent property tax increase she supported, although she said during budget talks that many of the cost-cutting measures proposed would only mean higher costs down the road for taxpayers.

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She also serves as a major proponent of a new downtown arena district, but, as the councillor who represents downtown, it would be a difficult project for her to oppose.

Yet she also faces the same barrier that has resulted in more than a century of men serving as Saskatoon mayor and only a few women campaigning unsuccessfully for the same job.

This could be an ugly campaign filled with online sexism and misogyny. Perhaps there are no names officially attached to the shadowy group A Better YXE, despite Saskatchewan Party connections if you dig, so it can engage in character assassination based on Block’s gender.

One of its posts earlier this year tried to portray Block as lacking in financial knowledge, even though the quote used from the veteran councillor accurately reflected the state of last year’s budget.

And Cary Tarasoff, who has announced he intends to run again for mayor, is engaged in feuds with everyone from Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand, who was recently awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, to Jason Aebig, the CEO of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.

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You may not take Tarasoff seriously, but he will try to make life uncomfortable for the other mayoral candidates.

Whatever attributes Block might boast in a mayoral race, the steel for a tough and maybe even a dirty campaign may be what she needs most.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

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