Winnipeg mayoral candidate Johnny Calderon focuses on men's mental health, addictions

Johnny Calderon, thank you for coming to CBC. No big deal. So why are you running for mayor? To save the city. From? Everything that's eating it. Yeah, what do you see out there that bugs you about Winnipeg right now? Meth and fentanyl, lack of care for mental health, and all the unspoken things we all know. I don't know what you mean by that. The unspoken things? Yeah. They're unspoken, I'll just leave it at that. Okay. Some of your promises and your plan to address the drug crisis, when we look at your platform, you say you want to tackle it with treatment enforcement and real recovery pathways so let's break that out so tackling it with enforcement how would that be different from what we've been seeing um well not just uh like a big swoop of things what i honestly think is that when i went to city hall to go do all the paperwork to run for mayor on my right there was someone can i say the drug work okay can i say drugs on here yeah someone was smoking meth on the right and someone smoking crack on the left yes yeah and uh there was a security guard that just looks at me so what i do feel is that these open drug things just like i'm talking about on the steps of City Hall i do feel it's a form of protest and the violent like the violent crime everything is it's a form of protest like whatever is going on right now in the leadership it's not work and they they're mad They're angry and they do believe yeah. Yeah, and I do believe that I cannot help With a real recovery pathway. I'm going to use your language. So what does that look like if you're gonna help people? I really do think that like resource centers people talking about resource centers. We need to use our centers this Other than Osborne Village. There's an abandoned drug den there. That's just boarded up I just saw a guy he worked for the city. He's boarding up the window again What I think we need there, like not a soup line kind of thing, what I really think that we need is just a fast-track paperwork kind of thing as well. So just if you need help with EI disability or how to get treatment, rehab or anything, some sort of fast-track paper, because it's kind of difficult to go online or call 311 and get anything done, especially if you don't speak English. I was like, I have problems getting really anything done with the city. And I'm from here. I speak English. i couldn't imagine how difficult it is for someone just coming to Winnipeg and you know what i mean that's what it is uh so given that you're from here what do you see in the re in recent years that motivated you to run for mayor because it's you know you're putting yourself out there oh for sure tell you the real reason so uh my mother whatever my mother's husband died she lived in the Interlake she came back and she's like what is going on i don't feel safe i i just broke my my heart was like, I was like, whatever. I got it. I have a little bit of a reach. I have a little bit of a platform. And if you, if you feel unsafe, I got, don't worry about it. I'll be back. Hold my beer. I'll be right back. I'm going to save the city for you. So the bit of the platform you're talking about is, uh, your social media. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's drunk Jesus. Yeah. Just pretend to be a drunk idiot. Yeah. So how do people distinguish when they look at the drunk Jesus on Instagram you know if you're like you know your shirt's off you're kind of ranting and raving um some voters might not take you seriously because of that is there a clear distinction between you and the character that you've got online of course my name is Johnny Calderon you're talking to him right now talking to you guys too uh but it is what got me here it there the videos i have they actually do have a bit of philosophy a lot of philosophy inside of them that i just it's just kind of baked in there's easter eggs in every video give me an example because i know i've watched some and you in a lot of the messages why can't we do better than this winnipeg um but give me an example of one that you say just a baked in philosophy that well something that somebody might click on if they're on your site and then and it might look like just simple on the outside but you're saying there's more to it yeah i'm saying something there first one that comes to mind is uh there's a video of me just saying just crying i'm saying my son just drowned in a public pool my son just drowned in a public pool okay so i guess taco tuesday has canceled this week but we should be gtg for next week good to go uh the real philosophy is behind because i saw this happen i went uh to a public pool and there was a kid there with his father he had a shirt on because he was he was let's say a bit heavier than most and he uh he walked out with this shirt on and he just was trying to go swimming everyone just is looking at him the lifeguards all the families and then he i just saw him just finally get the confidence to go to the public pool and the second he walked in he slipped okay and uh all of the um all the lifeguard girls were laughing at him all of the uh all of the families all the kids everyone was laughing at him i saw him get out of the pool and i knew at that second like this kid now has an eating disorder on top of an eating disorder so i saw his father's like just blood drained from his eyes and he's just like he just said my my son just drowned in a public pool now he has an eating disorder on top of an eating disorder but he's got an eating disorder so taco tuesday's canceled this week but let's be honest we're still gonna have to talk with tuesday next week and i don't understand a lot of what you're saying i won't i won't pretend that i do good i i i understand that some of it i think i was looking for maybe if there was a connection somehow to real civic issues yeah real civic issues is mental health yeah it's men's mental health there's the one thing that we're really really ignoring what would you do to improve it to improve it yeah i would fast track men's mental health i've seen it so many times or someone just they don't know how to ask for help they've been trained not to because it's men you know like you're one huge thing about the city that everything is kept with a drug everything homeless everything it falls into men's mental health and however the society's been going or wherever we're at a point where we need the city needs to fast track men's mental health i really do believe that if we just focused on men's mental health a whole lot of our problems would be you know what i mean yeah you've been at a lot of the forums and the debates and been participating um so you know there's 11 other people that are also running for mayor why why why would voters should voters choose you uh on on the ballot Uh, because you've all asked for a change. Everyone's been asking for a change. Like, I hate to say it, but it's just going to be all this. We're going to be having the same conversation in four years, eight years. The city's been asking for a change. The city needs someone who represents the city and the people. Who knows the city and the people. I've been there. I am there, and I'm not leaving until I fix this city. For you, for you, for you, for you, for my mother. Thank you for being with us today, Johnny Calderon, and good luck on October 28th. Have a nice life. You'll never see me again.