A new voice will represent Waverley West at city hall after Coun. Janice Lukes decided not to run again. On her way out the door, Lukes is endorsing one of them, Nafiya Naso. Naso is a former health care worker and small business owner who worked with Lukes over the last year and a half. “I saw all the good things that were happening and also saw the challenges,” Naso told CTV News Thursday. “We’ll build on the good things that are happening and work on the challenges with the residents.” Jasmine Brar is a school trustee who ran provincially for the Progressive Conservative Party in Burrows in 2019. Brar also founded the Prairie Pointe Neighbourhood Association and feels people want change here. “I’m not new, and I did not just show up, or (did) not parachute myself into the community, I have been working on a grassroot level,” Brar said. Uche Nwankwo ran for the Liberals in Waverley in the 2023 provincial election. He has a PhD in agricultural sciences from the Humboldt University in Berlin and wants to transform the ward’s retention ponds. “Revenue generation, how we can actually make use of the strong water ponds or the lakes in our neighbourhood so that it can be useful,” Nwankwo said. Yuanchao Li is a legal professional who believes the ward and Winnipeg’s diversity could be used to attract more businesses. “I propose to create stronger connections between Winnipeg and Shanghai to create jobs,” Li said. And Antar Banik, an electrical engineering technologist with the City of Winnipeg, would put a focus on responding to residents’ complaints. “Because wherever I go, I talk to the different neighbourhoods of Waverley West residents, there’s concerns and questions, problems, but there (are) no solutions,” Banik said. Election day is on Oct. 28.
