Ethel Blondin-Andrew became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada in 1988 when she became a member of Parliament for the district of Western Arctic in the Northwest Territories.
14 Facts About Ethel Blondin-Andrew
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew is the first Indigenous woman to be a Canadian Cabinet Minister.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew left the school to live in a tent town with other runaway students.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew was approached to run for the Territorial Council of the Northwest Territories but instead she ran to be Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic in the 1988 federal election.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew won and while an MP, she became the Liberal Party's Assistant Critic for employment equity and Aboriginal affairs.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew served as chair of the Northern and Western Caucus and the Caucus Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, and as a member of the Special Joint Committee on a Renewed Canada, the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, the Standing Committee on Northern Development, and the Standing Committee on Electoral Reform.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew gave her first speech in the House of Commons in the Dene language.
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Elizabeth II 8.
Ethel Blondin-Andrew helped create both Youth Service Canada and the Youth Employment Strategy.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew served in this role until 20 July 2004, when she became Minister of State.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew was re-elected in the 2004 federal election by a razor-thin margin of 53 votes, and was voted out of office in the 2006 federal election, after 17 years of service.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 2012.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew received the 2019 Maclean's Lifetime Achievement Award given to former MPs.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew was the Chair of Sahtu Secretarial Incorporated from 2009 until September 2018.
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Ethel Blondin-Andrew is married to Leon Andrew and has four children and four grandchildren.