Dear Winnipeg

A Fun Blog About Infrastructure and Municipal Finance

About

About Dear Winnipeg

You’ll notice that comments are closed on all posts here. That’s partly for my own sanity, but partly because while this blog is meant to be a conversation starter, it’s just not necessarily for a conversation with me.

If I write something that really makes you angry (or happy, or sad, or whatever else), don’t tell me about it. Starting an online fight with you is not my goal here.

Instead, take that ball of emotion and use it productively by starting a conversation IRL with your family, neighbours, co-workers and especially, your City Councillor. Don’t know how to reach your Councillor? Go here. Don’t know which ward you are in? Find it in the Citizen’s Information Service by looking up your address here.

If you still want to reach me after that, please do. I answer every email.

About Elmwood Guy

I live in Elmwood. I am a guy. Apart from those two things, other tidbits about me that you may find interesting are:

  • My real name is Michel Durand-Wood.
  • I am happily married to WinnipegOMyHeart.
  • I am the father of 3 young children.
  • I love my neighbourhood of Glenelm.
  • I have no formal training or education in city planning, municipal finance, infrastructure maintenance, or anything else I talk about here. I am just a guy, in love with a city, asking it to make better use of my tax dollars.
  • Still, I have been invited to speak throughout North America.
  • And I have a (fun) new book on municipal finance coming out in Canada on May 20th, 2025, and on June 24th, 2025 in the US and the UK. It’s available for pre-order now at IndieBookstores.ca, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Chapters Indigo, Amazon, or wherever you buy books. You can also reserve it from the Winnipeg Public Library. In the US, you can buy it at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or, again, wherever you buy books. In the UK, you’ll find it at Browns Books, Amazon.co.uk and wherever you buy books. Support your local bookshop and library whenever you can!

Guest Contributors

Here is a list of all the awesome Winnipeggers who have contributed writing here (click for bio):