Rick Boychuk

Rick Boychuk (born ca. 1947) is a labour leader and former politician in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He served on the Winnipeg City Council from 1989 to 1995, representing the Transcona ward. Boychuk is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Boychuk was born to a working class Ukrainian Canadian family in Transcona. He became a conductor with CN Rail in 1967, at age 20, and continued to hold this position during his time as an elected official. He first ran for city council in the 1986 municipal election, and lost to George Marshall. He ran again in 1989 as a candidate of the centre-left Winnipeg into the '90s (WIN) coalition, and defeated Marshall by about 450 votes amid a municipal shift to the left.

The number of municipal wards was reduced for the 1992 election, and Boychuk was required to run for re-election against fellow councillor Shirley Timm-Rudolph in an enlarged Transcona division. He was successful, winning by nearly 2,000 votes. This election was marked by undisguised animosity between the candidates: Boychuk had previously accused Timm-Rudolph of having violated conflict-of-interest guidelines, and declined to apologize when she was cleared by a provincial investigation.

Boychuk was an opponent of Sunday shopping in the early 1990s. In 1993, he released the results of a private survey demonstrating that most residents of his ward were against the initiative. He called for a permanent dike and drainage system in 1993, after overland flooding caused extensive damage to parts of his ward.

Unlike most WIN councillors, Boychuk initially supported construction of the Charleswood Bridge in the west-end of Winnipeg. In late 1993, however, he argued that municipal spending would be better directed toward infrastructural renewal. He indicated that he still supported the bridge in principle, but favoured a delay in moving forward. Like other WIN members, he opposed using municipal funds on a new arena for the Winnipeg Jets hockey team and instead supported efforts to refurbish the existing arena. In December 1994, he argued in favour of selling the Jets. Some hockey fans blamed Boychuk and other WIN councillors for precipitating the team's eventually departure from Winnipeg. One fan was arrested in the spring of 1995 for allegedly uttering death threats against Boychuk, and his family was harassed by neighbours on other occasions.

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