Editing Jacob Penner (section)

===Communist city council member===
Penner first ran in a Winnipeg city political race in 1931 when he was selected as the Communist candidate for [[Mayor of Winnipeg]].<ref name=Pen122>Norman Penner, ''Canadian Communism: The Stalin Years and Beyond.'' Toronto, ON: Methuen, 1988; pg. 122.</ref> He would garner 3,954 votes out of 52,572 cast (7.5%), finishing in fourth place in a five candidate race.<ref name=Ten>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4797292/10year_record_of_vote_for_mayoralty/ "Ten-Year Record of Vote for Mayoralty,"] ''Winnipeg Tribune,'' vol. 43, no. 282 (Nov. 24, 1934), pg. 4.</ref>

Penner would run again in the annual election of 1932.<ref name=Pen122 /> In his second effort at election as Winnipeg Mayor, Penner captured 3,495 votes out of 49,387 ballots cast (7.1%), finishing in last place in a four-person race.<ref name=Ten />

In 1933, after Communist Party Political Committee member [[Leslie Morris]] was stricken from the ballot on a legal technicality, Penner was tapped as a Communist candidate for Winnipeg's [[city council]].<ref name=Pen122 /> In the November 1933 election Penner topped all vote-getters in the city's North End to win election, assuming his seat on January 2, 1934.<ref name=Pen122 /> Penner would be regularly re-elected as a Winnipeg alderman, holding the position until 1960, excepting a time during WWII when he was put in a concentration camp for being a Communist.<ref name=Pen122 /> Penner thereby became the longest serving elected Communist alderman in North America.

Penner was very popular among his constituents in the city's impoverished north end and attracted support from across party lines. He was an early advocate of a [[minimum wage]] and [[unemployment insurance]] and used his political position to campaign for these reforms.

In addition to his service in municipal politics, Penner stood for higher electoral office at least two more times, running again for the provincial legislature in the election of 1932, picking up 1,106 votes in a losing effort, and in the 1958 Manitoba election, in which he received 588 votes running in the [[St. Johns (electoral district)|St. Johns riding]].

When he retired in 1960, fellow Communist [[Joseph Zuken]] was elected to succeed him on the Winnipeg City Council. Zuken would serve into the 1980s.