14 Facts About Ken Dillen

Kenneth George Dillen was a Canadian politician and political activist.

Ken Dillen was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1973 to 1977, serving as a member of the social democratic New Democratic Party.

Ken Dillen trained as an ironworker and became president of United Steel Workers local 6166 after moving to Manitoba.

Ken Dillen was a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation in the 1970s.

Ken Dillen was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1973 provincial election, narrowly defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Anna Derby in the northern riding of Thompson.

Ken Dillen was the province's first Member of the Legislative Assembly of Indigenous background in several years.

Ken Dillen entered the legislature as a government backbencher, serving as Schreyer's legislative assistant.

Ken Dillen lost to Progressive Conservative candidate Ken MacMaster by 916 votes in the 1977 provincial election.

Ken Dillen later moved to Saskatchewan and held several positions, including field staff coordinator for the Key Lake Board of Inquiry, overseeing uranium mining operations.

Ken Dillen was a member of the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment, the Interprovincial Inland Fisherman's Association, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Ken Dillen dismissed the right-wing Saskatchewan Party as "nothing more than disaffected socialists" and cited Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom as representative of his own beliefs.

Ken Dillen opposed gun control, the Canadian Wheat Board and the Kyoto Accord, and spoke against efforts by the Ontario government to ban pit bulls.

Ken Dillen returned to Manitoba after spending some years in Saskatchewan, and ran for re-election as a Liberal for the Thompson electoral division in 2011, finishing third to New Democratic MLA Steve Ashton and Tory candidate Anita Campbell.

Ken Dillen died in Cutler, Ontario on April 20,2020, nine days shy of his 82nd birthday.