her offices, which were closed for the holidays. When she did not respond to the letter, Zaccardelli called her personally to ask whether or not she had read his letter. Wasylycia-Leis then proceeded to call a press conference to announce that the Liberals were the subject of an RCMP investigation. The effects of this announcement were an almost immediate drop in Liberal popularity and surge in Conservative momentum, as indicated by public-opinion polls. The letter from Zaccardelli to Wasylycia-Leis remains controversial, as it went against standard RCMP policy by publicly announcing that a criminal investigation is being conducted. The controversy is deepened by the timing of the announcement to coincide with a federal election campaign. On February 15, 2007, the RCMP announced the conclusion of the income trust investigation and laid a charge of 'Breach of Trust' against Serge Nadeau, an official in the Department of Finance. Goodale was cleared of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Wasylycia-Leis called for an apology from Goodale. Wasylycia-Leis also played a central role in the debate surrounding the introduction of additional tax on Income Trusts in the 'Tax Fairness Plan' introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on October 31, 2006. On September 27, 2007, Jack Layton replaced Wasylycia-Leis with Thomas Mulcair as the NDP finance critic. Wasylycia-Leis became caucus chair, and her critic portfolios included health and persons with disabilities. She was re-elected again in the 2008 federal election. Race for mayor of Winnipeg On April 27, 2010, Wasylycia-Leis announced her retirement from federal politics, effective May 1, without announcing her future plans. On May 3, she filed papers to run as Mayor of Winnipeg in the October 2010 municipal elections. Sharon Carstairs, a Liberal Senator and the former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party was announced to be her campaign co-chair and Nicole Campbell, a national representative of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, was enlisted as her campaign manager. Even before she announced her candidacy, she pledged that if she won, she would donate her MP's pension to charity; she would have preferred to simply return it, but this is not possible. During her term as a federal MP, she similarly declined her pension as a provincial MLA. Wasylycia-Leis lost to the incumbent, Sam Katz, by 25,395 votes. In 2014, Wasylycia-Leis came second in the mayoral race, losing to Brian Bowman. Electoral record Federal Municipal See also List of University of Waterloo people References