Winnipeg Free Press

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CITY & BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204- 697- 7292 city. desk@ freepress. mb. ca I winnipegfreepress. com WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014 B 1 A T the start of a lunch- hour address before the Conservative Club of Winnipeg, Gord Steeves walked up to the podium and noticed someone placed a box of Kleenex next to his microphone. " Not sure why these are here," said Steeves, one of seven high- profile Winnipeggers mulling a run for mayor this year. " Hopefully, this isn't going to go that poorly." Steeves, the former city councillor who was a federal Liberal before he made an unsuccessful run as a provincial Progressive Conservative, didn't have to reach for any of those tissues during a speech before a friendly audience of right- of- centre Winnipeggers. For about 25 minutes, Steeves spoke of the need for the City of Winnipeg to focus on the delivery of core services, avoid overtaxation and improve downtown safety to the point where hotel bellboys no longer tell visitors to avoid going out at night. Everything was going according to pre- campaign script until the questionand- answer period after the address. That's when retired lawyer Barr� Hall raised the concern on the mind of every right- of- centre Winnipeg voter: How can Steeves expect to become mayor when five out of seven prospective candidates sit on the right side of the political spectrum? Two recent polls have placed Steeves in a respectable position - No. 2 in a field of seven prospective candidates, but well behind former NDP MP and MLA Judy Wasylycia- Leis. As Hall pointed out, incumbent mayor Sam Katz, lawyer Brian Bowman and Couns. Paula Havixbeck and Scott Fielding may also run on the right. Wasylycia- Leis only faces left- of- centre competition from Coun. John Orlikow. If voter intentions remain the same and all seven potential candidates run for mayor, the result may be an easy victory for Wasylycia- Leis, Hall said. " I hope we don't end up with that at the end of the day," said Steeves. TheproblemforSteevesisHavixbeck, Fielding and Bowman are all out making the same appeal, while Katz hasn't confirmed speculation he won't seek office again. At this stage in the race, the right- ofcentre field is engaged in a poker game, waiting to see who will blink first and drop out of the race. " I don't think all of those people will be on the ballot at the end of the day," said Havixbeck, who sat in the audience during her rival's speech. " My supporters continue to urge me to run." Regardless of how many names are on the ballot on election day, Hall said he will vote for the right- of- centre candidate most likely to defeat Wasylycia- Leis. Right now, that person is Steeves, based on the results of two recent polls, but that isn't set in stone. " I'm willing to switch my vote if it means ensuring fiscal sanity," Hall said. Wasylycia- Leis, however, does not portray herself as a left- of- centre candidate, despite her many years as an elected member of the NDP. In an interview earlier this week, she said she has support from members of all parties. Likewise, Havixbeck has attempted to build a broad base of support, particularly by courting the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500 and the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg. Steeves has also tried to portray himself as a moderate. When asked by former Winnipeg mayoral candidate Peter Kaufmann whether he was ready for a fight with unions over wages and pensions, Steeves said he was - but only in a manner where both sides can negotiate respectfully and agree. Only Fielding appears to have staked out the territory on the hard fiscal right. Bowman has offered few hints about the nature of his campaign. As the right- of- centre field jockeys for position, the gloves are beginning to come off. " I don't know if Paula being here means she supports me 100 per cent, but I hope it does," Steeves joked during his speech. That wasn't the case. " I didn't hear a lot of substance in what he was presenting," Havixbeck said. bartley. kives@ freepress. mb. ca Right- of- centres jockey for position Just 2 left- leaning mayoral hopefuls By Bartley Kives FIRST it was hanging on Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski's living room wall. Then it turned up on a high- end purse in a Florida JC Penney store. Then it hit Twitter and all turned out OK. The strange journey of Barteski's black- andwhite painting, which she says was copied without her permission by a well- known Canadian clothier, highlights the struggle artists face in the Internet age battling for compensation for unauthorized reproductions of their work. " I don't want to dedicate half my week to finding out who is stealing things," said Barteski. " I want to dedicate my time to making things." The painting, which features the phrase " When you love what you have, you have everything you need" in paintbrush script, hung in Barteski's home for years before it was sold a few weeks ago. But it also appeared on her artists' website, where low- resolution copies have been filched before. But never as badly as this. By chance, a friend shopping at a JC Penney store in Port Charlotte, Fla., earlier this week spotted a purse emblazoned with Barteski's painting and immediately recognized the image. The friend snapped a photo, emailed it to Barteski, bought the purse and mailed it to Barteski. There's little question the image is Barteski's. The paint- splatter effect around many letters is the same, one word is missing the same G and Barteski's signature, reduced to a squiggly line because the reproduction was poor quality, can also be seen inside a capital D. The Red River College graduate figures there are thousands of the purses in hundreds of JC Penney stores in the United States alone. JC Penney said Tuesday it had just been informed of the issue and had no comment. The bag was manufactured by Call it Spring, a division of Montreal- based retailer Aldo Group. Tuesday morning, Barteski took both JC Penney and Call it Spring to task on her blog, accusing them of stealing her work. She said she may have to hire a lawyer to protect her intellectual property rights. " If someone came into my house and stole the four by six- foot original painting of this... it would be theft and things would be done. But, the Internet is a different soup," she wrote. Though it's a backhanded compliment her design is viewed as commercially lucrative, Barteski says she's an example of an artist whose livelihood is undermined by unauthorized use. " If my work is good enough to steal, then why wouldn't it be good enough to collaborate on and do something legal?" she said. By day's end Tuesday, that's what happened. Barteski's blog created a mini- Twitter storm and she found herself on the phone with Call it Spring's design, marketing and legal staff who offered her a reasonable cut of the profits from the purse and said they were interested in her other designs and future collaborations. " I felt like they understood and were trying to make it right," she said Tuesday afternoon. " I do feel a lot better after talking to them today." Staff at the Aldo Group did not return calls from the Free Press for comment, but Barteski said they were surprisingly responsive to her complaint, much more so than other unauthorized users she's gone after. Three years ago, Barteski discovered a Vancouver store was selling poor- quality downloads of another image from her online gallery for $ 25. After a little sleuthing, she realized the extent of the online theft of her work was huge. The image had been downloaded more than 1.5 million times and was displayed on tote bags, coffee mugs and necklaces all over the world. maryagnes. welch@ freepress. mb. ca PHOTOS BY WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Coun. Paula Havixbeck listens to Gord Steeves speak at a Conservative Club of Winnipeg luncheon Tuesday. Artist takes clothier to task for filching image By Mary Agnes Welch SUBMITTED PHOTO ( ABOVE LEFT); PAULETTE SARSFIELD ( ABOVE RIGHT) The image of Kal Barteski's painting ( left) was seen on a purse in a Florida JC Penney store ( right). PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES B_ 01_ Feb- 12- 14_ FP_ 01. indd B1 2/ 11/ 14 10: 31: 26 PM ;