1. Wabanakwut "Wab" Kinew was born on December 31,1981 and is a Canadian politician who has served as the 25th premier of Manitoba since October 18,2023 and the leader of the Manitoba New Democratic Party since September 16,2017.
41 Facts About Wab Kinew
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Wab Kinew is Canada's first provincial premier of First Nations descent, and Manitoba's first Indigenous premier since Metis Premier John Norquay in 1887.
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Wabanakwut "Wab" Kinew was born on December 31,1981, in Kenora, Ontario.
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Wab Kinew moved to suburban Winnipeg with his parents in childhood and attended College Beliveau, a French immersion school, and vacationed in Onigaming in the summers.
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Wab Kinew began working in broadcasting after the Winnipeg Free Press published a letter to the editor which he had written about Team Canada hockey, and a local CBC Radio producer contacted him to express interest in creating and airing a documentary feature on the matter.
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In 2010, Wab Kinew was a finalist for the Future Leaders of Manitoba award and lost to Canadian filmmaker and director Adam Smoluk.
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Wab Kinew has been a reporter and host for the CBC's radio and television operations, including the weekly arts magazine show The 204 in Winnipeg and the national documentary series 8th Fire in 2012.
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Wab Kinew is a host of the documentary program Fault Lines on Al Jazeera America.
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Wab Kinew was a guest host of Q for two weeks in December 2014, and moderated the 2015 edition of Canada Reads.
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In 2014, Wab Kinew was appointed associate vice-president of Indigenous Relations after Jennifer Rattray resigned the position.
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Wab Kinew is an honorary witness for the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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On October 25,2014, Wab Kinew received an honorary doctorate degree from Cape Breton University.
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The Reason You Walk is a memoir that chronicles the year 2012, during which Wab Kinew strove to reconnect with the Indigenous man who raised him.
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In 2018, Wab Kinew published a children's book, Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes, about notable figures in First Nations history, including John Herrington, Sacagawea, Carey Price, and Crazy Horse.
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Wab Kinew was inspired to write the stories of such people by Barack Obama's Of Thee I Sing, and K'naan's song Take a Minute.
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In 2021, Wab Kinew released Walking in Two Worlds, a young adult fantasy novel published by Penguin Teen, in which an Indigenous teen girl is caught between the real world and a virtual video-game universe.
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Wab Kinew considered running for the leadership of the Assembly of First Nations in its 2014 leadership election, but decided not to mount a campaign as he was newly married in August and felt that it was not the right time to be away from home for an extended period.
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Wab Kinew was named the NDP's spokesperson for reconciliation and opposition critic for Education, Advanced Learning, and Training, as well as for Housing and Community Development.
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Wab Kinew was a candidate in the 2017 Manitoba NDP leadership election; at the September 16 convention, he defeated the only other candidate, former cabinet minister Steve Ashton, by a margin of 728 votes to 253.
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In 2017, Wab Kinew introduced Bill 223 to mark September 30 as Orange Shirt Day, a day meant to honour residential school survivors, while in 2019, he introduced Bill 228, the Sikh Heritage Month Act.
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Later in 2019 Wab Kinew put forward a private member's bill that would bestow title of honorary first premier to Metis leader Louis Riel and require Riel's contributions be part of the school curriculum.
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Wab Kinew led the Manitoba NDP into the 2019 provincial election; the party gained six seats but the Progressive Conservative Party were re-elected to a majority.
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Wab Kinew continued as leader after the 2019 election, following which the NDP gained a lead over the governing PCs in polling.
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Wab Kinew was sworn in as Premier of Manitoba on October 18,2023.
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Wab Kinew campaigned on promises to strengthen Manitoba's healthcare system, efforts as of December 2024 include provincial coverage for prescription birth control and menopause transition medications under pharmacare, expanded capacity of existing health clinics across Manitoba, the opening of the first of five new neighbourhood health clinics in Manitoba, and revamping the province's paper health card with the introduction of plastic ones starting in 2025.
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In December 2024, Wab Kinew pledged to combat homelessness by starting to move homeless people from homeless encampments into proper housing in 2025.
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Some time after moving out of his parents' home at the age of 19, Wab Kinew began experiencing problems with alcohol.
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On February 24,2003, Wab Kinew was arrested in Winnipeg, after he was spotted erratically driving his father's 2000 Dodge Dakota by Henderson Highway late in the evening.
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Wab Kinew continued to drive several more kilometres with a blown-out front tire before police caught up to him at a parkade.
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Police reported Wab Kinew as having bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, as well as being unsteady on his feet.
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Wab Kinew refused to undergo a breathalyzer after being taken into custody.
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In June 2003, Wab Kinew was charged by the RCMP with two counts of domestic assault related to allegations that he threw his then-girlfriend, Tara Hart, across a room during an argument.
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Wab Kinew denies the allegations, while Hart has continued to maintain otherwise.
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On June 27,2004, while bound by a court recognizance on his previous DUI charge, Wab Kinew was arrested following an altercation with a taxi driver.
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Wab Kinew was intoxicated when he caught the cab shortly before 5 in the morning.
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Wab Kinew attempted to flee the scene when police arrived, and Wab Kinew declined to discuss the incident after being taken into custody.
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On page 70 of his 2015 memoir, The Reason You Walk, Wab Kinew claimed he had grabbed a cab with friends and "hopped out without paying," after which:.
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Also in 2004, Wab Kinew was given a conditional discharge for an assault in Ontario after getting into a fight.
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Wab Kinew has gone through various exercises to rehabilitate himself from his issues with alcohol, including attending sweat lodges and a sun dance ceremony where he fasted for four days and pulled buffalo skulls by piercings cut into his body.
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Wab Kinew has since quit drinking and, in 2014, applied for a pardon from the Canadian government, which was granted by the Parole Board of Canada in 2016.
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In September 2016, Wab Kinew married Dr Lisa Monkman, an Ojibwe family physician who practises medicine at an inner-city clinic.