Wab Kinew facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Honourable Wab Kinew MLA
Kinew in 2024
25th Premier of Manitoba
Incumbent
Assumed office October 18, 2023
Monarch	Charles III
Lieutenant Governor	Anita Neville
Deputy	Uzoma Asagwara
Preceded by	Heather Stefanson
Leader of the Manitoba New Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office September 16, 2017
Preceded by	Flor Marcelino (interim)
Leader of the Opposition in Manitoba
In office September 16, 2017 – October 18, 2023
Preceded by	Flor Marcelino
Succeeded by	Heather Stefanson
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Fort Rouge
Incumbent
Assumed office April 19, 2016
Preceded by	Jennifer Howard
Personal details
Born	Wabanakwut Kinew (1981-12-31) December 31, 1981 (age 43) Kenora, Ontario, Canada
Political party	New Democratic
Spouse	Lisa Monkman ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	3
Residence	Crescentwood, Winnipeg
Alma mater	University of Manitoba (BA)
Occupation	Broadcaster, university administrator, musician, author

Wabanakwut "Wab" Kinew MLA (/wɑːb kɪˈnuː/; born December 31, 1981) 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 (NDP) since September 16, 2017. Kinew represents Fort Rouge in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and was the leader of the Opposition from 2017 until the NDP's victory in the 2023 Manitoba election.

Before entering politics, Kinew was an author, musician, broadcaster and university administrator, best known as a host of programming on CBC Radio and CBC Television. Kinew is Canada's first provincial premier of First Nations descent, and Manitoba's first Indigenous premier since Métis Premier John Norquay in 1887.

Early life and education

Wabanakwut "Wab" Kinew was born on December 31, 1981, in Kenora, Ontario. From the Onigaming First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, he is the son of Tobasonakwut Kinew, a former local and regional chief and a professor of Indigenous governance at the University of Winnipeg, and Dr. Kathi Avery Kinew, a policy analyst.

Kinew moved to suburban Winnipeg with his parents in childhood and attended Collège Béliveau, a French immersion school, and vacationed in Onigaming in the summers. He graduated from the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, a private high school which Kinew said in a 2014 interview was "one of the best in Winnipeg." Kinew went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Manitoba, later pursuing a master’s degree in Indigenous governance.

Career

Broadcasting and media

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.

In 2010, Kinew was a finalist for the Future Leaders of Manitoba award and lost to Canadian filmmaker and director Adam Smoluk. Other notable finalists of the award include Olympic champion Jennifer Jones, radio personality David 'Ace' Burpee, friend of Bell Let's Talk Karuna (Andi) Sharma, artist Kal Barteski, and Canadian restaurateur and philanthropist Sachit Mehra.

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. He is also a host of the documentary program Fault Lines on Al Jazeera America.

In 2014, he appeared as a panelist on CBC Radio's Canada Reads, defending Joseph Boyden's novel The Orenda. The novel won the competition.

Kinew was a guest host of Q for two weeks in December 2014, and moderated the 2015 edition of Canada Reads.

Music

After being a member of the hip-hop groups Slangblossom and the Dead Indians in the mid 2000s, Kinew released his debut individual CD as a rapper, Live by the Drum, in 2009. The CD won an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award for Best Rap/Hip-Hop CD. His second CD, Mide-Sun, followed in 2010.

Albums

University administration

In 2011, the University of Winnipeg named Kinew its first director of Indigenous Inclusion. In 2014, Kinew was appointed associate vice-president of Indigenous Relations after Jennifer Rattray resigned the position. He is also an honorary witness for the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On October 25, 2014, Kinew received an honorary doctorate degree from Cape Breton University.

Books

Kinew has written a total of four books—The Reason You Walk, Go Show the World, Walking in Two Worlds, and The Everlasting Road—all published by Penguin Canada.

The Reason You Walk is a memoir that chronicles the year 2012, during which Kinew strove to reconnect with the Indigenous man who raised him. A reviewer for The Globe and Mail commented: "the undeniable significance of The Reason You Walk's message, and the fact that the book holds so much for both aboriginal and non-aboriginal readers, makes it a must-read. This is not just a memoir, it's a meditation on the purpose of living." Kinew was honoured with the 2016 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction, for this book, which comes with a $10,000 cash award.

In 2018, 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. He 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. The book went on to make the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature – illustrated shortlist.

In 2021, 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. The book won Kinew an Aurora Award for science fiction and fantasy in 2022.

Political career

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.

In 2016, he was announced as a Manitoba New Democratic Party candidate for Fort Rouge for the 2016 provincial election. During the final days of the campaign, misogynistic and homophobic tweets and other social media comments were discovered by media on Kinew's Twitter feed. This created a scandal with calls for the New Democratic Party to drop Kinew from the ballot. Following an apology for his past comments, at the election on April 19, 2016, Kinew defeated Manitoba Liberal Party leader Rana Bokhari in the riding of Fort Rouge. He was subsequently named the NDP's spokesperson for reconciliation and opposition critic for Education, Advanced Learning, and Training, as well as for Housing and Community Development.

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. This made Kinew the first elected First Nations leader of a major party in Manitoba's history.

In 2017, 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. Later in 2019 Kinew also put forward a private member's bill that would bestow title of honorary first premier to Métis leader Louis Riel and require Riel's contributions be part of the school curriculum.

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.

Kinew continued as leader after the 2019 election, following which the NDP gained a lead over the governing PCs in polling. Ahead of the 2023 provincial election, the race tightened during the campaign period. The NDP campaign focused on healthcare reform. The NDP won the election, making Kinew the first First Nations person, and second Indigenous person overall, to be elected a provincial premier in Canada.

Premier of Manitoba

Kinew was sworn in as Premier of Manitoba on October 18, 2023.

During his first year as premier, Kinew implemented his campaign promise of a provincial fuel tax holiday until the end of 2024, costing the provincial government $340 million in tax revenue. In addition to the provincial fuel holiday, Kinew's government also announced a 5-point plan to address crime and public safety, including plans to create a community monitoring and supervision program for chronic offenders. Kinew also campaigned on promises to strengthen Manitoba's healthcare system, efforts as of December 2024 include 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. In the NDP's 2024 budget, spending increased by 6%.

In December 2024, Kinew pledged to combat homelessness by starting to move homeless people from homeless encampments into proper housing in 2025.

Personal life

Kinew recounts that he "experienced racially motivated assaults by adults" during his time growing up in suburban Winnipeg.

In September 2016, Kinew married Dr. Lisa Monkman, an Ojibway family physician who practises medicine at an inner-city clinic. The couple welcomed a son in May 2017. Kinew has two sons from a previous relationship.

Kinew is trilingual: he speaks Ojibwe, English and French.

Electoral record