Kinew’s election ‘true act of reconciliation’: Indigenous leader
Why It Matters
A First Nations premier and a Black, non-binary deputy premier now head Manitoba's provincial government, signalling a potential governance approach shift in the province.
WINNIPEG/TREATY 1 – Manitoba has become the first Canadian province to swear in a First Nations Premier, who will also hold the title of minister of Indigenous reconciliation.
Wab Kinew’s New Democratic Party won 34 of the province’s 57 electoral seats on Oct. 3, defeating the Progressive Conservatives who had campaigned on a promise not to search a local landfill for the remains of three murdered Indigenous women.
Speaking at Kinew’s swearing-in ceremony this week, former senator Murray Sinclair described his election as a “true act of reconciliation.”
Breaking with tradition, the swearing-in ceremony was held at The Leaf conservatory rather than the Manitoba Legislative Building. Proceedings began with the lighting of a qulliq, a traditional oil lamp associated with Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, and included the Dakota Hotain Singers and a
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