| Mayor | Sam Katz |
| River Heights-Fort Garry | John Orlikow |
| Charleswood-Tuxedo | Paula Havixbeck |
| St. Charles | Grant Nordman |
| St. James-Brooklands | Scott Fielding |
| Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry | Jenny Gerbasi |
| North Kildonan | Jeff Browaty |
| St. Boniface | Dan Vandal |
| Old Kildonan | Devi Sharma |
| Point Douglas | Mike Pagtakhan |
| Daniel McIntyre | Harvey Smith |
| St. Vital | Gord Steeves |
| St. Norbert | Justin Swandel |
| Elmwood-East Kildonan | Thomas Steen |
| Transcona | Russ Wyatt |
The municipal government of Winnipeg is represented by 15 city councillors and a mayor elected every four years.
On July 27, 1971, and the creation of Unicity, the city of Winnipeg absorbed the R. M. of Charleswood, the R. M. of Fort Garry, the R. M. of North Kildonan, the R. M. of Old Kildonan, the Town of Tuxedo, the City of East Kildonan, the City of West Kildonan, the City of St. Vital, the City of Transcona, the City of St. Boniface, the City of St. James-Assiniboia, the old City of Winnipeg and Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg into one city.
The first election for the newly combined city was held on October 6, 1971. The City Council consisted of 50 councillors and one mayor. The councillors were elected on the basis of one councillor per city ward while the mayor was elected by the city-at-large. The term of office was three years. The inaugural meeting of the new council took place on January 4, 1972.
Since 50 councillors proved too unwieldy the city wards were reduced to 29 in 1977. In 1992 the city wards were reduced even further to the present 15 and city councillors became full-time politicians.
On June 22, 2004, Sam Katz was elected as the first Jewish mayor of Winnipeg. He beat out prominent politicians Dan Vandal, Al Golden, and MaryAnn Mihychuk for the job by receiving 42.51% of the vote. This came after the resignation of Glen Murray as mayor of Winnipeg to run in the 2004 federal election.
Katz was re-elected to a second term in the 2006 elections on October 25, 2006. After promising in his first election to run for only two terms, Katz ran for a third term in 2010. He was re-elected in the 2010 elections.
Winnipeg is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by eight Members of Parliament. As of 2010[update], four are from the Conservative Party of Canada, two are from the New Democratic Party, and two are from the Liberal Party of Canada.
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Starting in 1900, in both provincial and federal elections, central Winnipeg elected politicians from the Labour Party. Winnipeg was the site of a general strike from May 15 to June 28, 1919. There were violent protests during this strikes, several deaths at the hands of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and the arrest of many of Winnipeg's future politicians. Though it was not chartered until 1932, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was born not only out of the depression but also out of the labour unrest of 1919. Its successor, the New Democratic Party, has enjoyed much support in Winnipeg since the early 1960s. Winnipeg's longest-serving Members of Parliament include J.S. Woodsworth (21 years), Stanley Knowles (38 years), David Orlikow (25 years), Bill Blaikie (almost 27 years and re-elected in the 2006 federal election), and Lloyd Axworthy (21 years).
Aside from being the provincial capital of Manitoba, Winnipeg has served as the capital for two other Canadian territories: the Northwest Territories from 1870 to 1876 and the District of Keewatin from 1876 to 1905.
In 2004, Winnipeg had the fourth-highest overall crime rate among Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas listed, with 12,167 Criminal Code of Canada offences per 100,000 inhabitants; only Regina, Saskatoon, and Abbotsford had higher crime rates.[1] Winnipeg had the highest rate among centres with populations greater than 500,000.[1] The crime rate was 50% higher than that of Calgary, and more than double that of Toronto.[1] Statistics Canada states that in 2005, Manitoba had the highest decline of overall crime in Canada at nearly 8%.[2]
Manitoba has also has a continuing problem with auto thefts, most of which occur in Winnipeg.[3] To combat auto theft, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) established financial incentives for motor vehicle owners to install ignition immobilisers in their vehicles. It now requires owners of high-risk vehicles to install immobilisers.[4]
Winnipeg is protected by the Winnipeg Police Service, which has 1418 members.[5]
According to a 2001 Statistics Canada study,[6] reported crime is not evenly distributed across the city. Two key areas of higher crime rates are located north of the Assiniboine River and west of the Red River. The first, Portage-Ellice (Spence), has a radius of approximately one kilometre with its origin near the intersection of Sherbrook Street and Ellice Avenue. The second, William Whyte, is approximately an equilateral triangle with 2 kilometre sides and includes areas of Lord Selkirk Park to Burrows Central to St John's neighbourhods west of the Red River and north of the CPR railway.[7]
The "Highest-Need" neighbourhoods named in the study with the highest rates of crime per capita were listed as:[8]
A Google Earth map layer showing break-in crime density is available online at the Google Earth Community site.[9]
The City of Winnipeg has a CrimeStat [2] interactive crime mapping tool that shows recent occurrences of crime in various city neighbourhoods and districts.