A First Nations first
October 4, 2023 6:02 AM Subscribe
Manitoba has elected Canada's first ever Indigenous provincial premier, Wab Kinew. Kinew's father was not allowed to vote as a young man under Canadian law at the time.
The NDP leader campaigned primarily on healthcare. The Conservatives, who were facing mounting criticism for refusing to search a landfill for the bodies of two Indigenous women, tried attack ads focused on criminal charges faced by Kinew as a young man. Kinew responded that the Conservatives and their supporters "think I’m running from my past, but actually, my past is the reason I’m running."
The NDP leader campaigned primarily on healthcare. The Conservatives, who were facing mounting criticism for refusing to search a landfill for the bodies of two Indigenous women, tried attack ads focused on criminal charges faced by Kinew as a young man. Kinew responded that the Conservatives and their supporters "think I’m running from my past, but actually, my past is the reason I’m running."
This is the way.
posted by whatevernot at 6:07 AM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 6:07 AM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Nice to get some good news in Canadian politics for a change.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:09 AM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:09 AM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's nice to feel optimistic here in Mb, rather than infuriated, angry and worried. Sadly, my riding elected the PC candidate, but happily, not that many other ridings did. Very, very glad that the PCs smear campaign and "Parents Rights" b-s landed with a wet squelch right on their wingtips.
posted by joelhunt at 6:17 AM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by joelhunt at 6:17 AM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
Wow, somehow I missed the coverage of those attack ads. I want to say I can't believe how dirty and nasty those were, but sadly, I can all too well believe it. I just wish I lived in a world where those kind of tactics aren't acceptable. I also can't believe it was smart to attack a criminal lawyer. I'd imagine lawyers, on average, make up a pretty significant portion of Tory voters, and that just seems like a really dumb thing to do to potential supporters.
posted by sardonyx at 6:40 AM on October 4, 2023
posted by sardonyx at 6:40 AM on October 4, 2023
I'm glad to see this posted here, but I have to note that Kinew is the first First Nations provincial premier, not the first Indigenous one. John Norquay, Manitoba premier from 1878-1887, was Métis.
posted by The Notorious SRD at 6:45 AM on October 4, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by The Notorious SRD at 6:45 AM on October 4, 2023 [14 favorites]
good tidings
Manitoba, Frank Black and the Catholics
posted by elkevelvet at 6:58 AM on October 4, 2023
Manitoba, Frank Black and the Catholics
posted by elkevelvet at 6:58 AM on October 4, 2023
This is great news. Feels refreshing.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:51 AM on October 4, 2023
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:51 AM on October 4, 2023
The Conservatives, who were facing mounting criticism for refusing to search a landfill for the bodies of two Indigenous women
Two Indigenous women that we know of.
Which is almost certainly a lower bound of the true number of missing women that lie in that garbage dump.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 8:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [11 favorites]
Two Indigenous women that we know of.
Which is almost certainly a lower bound of the true number of missing women that lie in that garbage dump.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 8:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [11 favorites]
This is great. I hope he does well.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:01 AM on October 4, 2023
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:01 AM on October 4, 2023
The Conservatives... tried attack ads focused on criminal charges faced by Kinew as a young man.
The irony being that Kinew has been quite open about those charges so the whole "people have a right to know" schtick is just ridiculous. Yeah, he's already talked about all that stuff and it hasn't been a secret. And I think he may have even mentioned it in his book The Reason You Walk (though I may be mistaken as it's been quite some time since I read it). The Cons were exceptionally tone deaf during this campaign... more so than usual.
Congrats to Kinew and the NDP in Manitoba. I hope my own province has a similar shift in the coming years.
posted by eekernohan at 9:06 AM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
The irony being that Kinew has been quite open about those charges so the whole "people have a right to know" schtick is just ridiculous. Yeah, he's already talked about all that stuff and it hasn't been a secret. And I think he may have even mentioned it in his book The Reason You Walk (though I may be mistaken as it's been quite some time since I read it). The Cons were exceptionally tone deaf during this campaign... more so than usual.
Congrats to Kinew and the NDP in Manitoba. I hope my own province has a similar shift in the coming years.
posted by eekernohan at 9:06 AM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Two Indigenous women that we know of.
Which is almost certainly a lower bound of the true number of missing women that lie in that garbage dump.
I dated a Cree woman from the Sault and she would always say "Manitoba. Bad things happen in Manitoba". That was in the late eighties. This has been a known problem forever, at least among first nations women.
posted by srboisvert at 10:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Which is almost certainly a lower bound of the true number of missing women that lie in that garbage dump.
I dated a Cree woman from the Sault and she would always say "Manitoba. Bad things happen in Manitoba". That was in the late eighties. This has been a known problem forever, at least among first nations women.
posted by srboisvert at 10:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
My mom and her husband voted early, as they were going to be out of town on election day. Many more people seem to have voted early this time around!
Looking forward to seeing what an NDP majority can get done.
And, in the wake of the election and I assume a presumption of a change in the provincial response to the demands to search the landfill, here are the feds offering $740K towards it. Granted, it's only a tiny fraction of the estimated cost.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:58 AM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Looking forward to seeing what an NDP majority can get done.
And, in the wake of the election and I assume a presumption of a change in the provincial response to the demands to search the landfill, here are the feds offering $740K towards it. Granted, it's only a tiny fraction of the estimated cost.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:58 AM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is great news - Wab Kinew is inspiring. Hope he one day becomes Canada's first Indigenous Prime Minister!
And look at his excellent response to the attack ads:
"I'm pleased that the PCs are now attacking me, instead of trans kids or [murdered Indigenous] women in the landfill. I signed up for this. I knew what I was getting into. Trans kids and the families of the murder victims did not," Kinew said at a news conference.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:09 AM on October 4, 2023 [14 favorites]
And look at his excellent response to the attack ads:
"I'm pleased that the PCs are now attacking me, instead of trans kids or [murdered Indigenous] women in the landfill. I signed up for this. I knew what I was getting into. Trans kids and the families of the murder victims did not," Kinew said at a news conference.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:09 AM on October 4, 2023 [14 favorites]
This is great news! I lived in Winnipeg from 2005-2008 and have a lot of good memories of my time there. I'm really excited to see what Kinew and the NDP can do now.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:47 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:47 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Wooooooo
posted by warriorqueen at 4:14 PM on October 4, 2023
posted by warriorqueen at 4:14 PM on October 4, 2023
On the one hand I’m really happy about this.
On the other hand, spending near 200 million dollars and risking many many lives to possibly maybe find two bodies is actually an incredible waste of resources.
And dropping the gas tax is also a horrible idea.
Like I want the NDP to be a serious party, but this is going to play into misperceptions of them as wasteful and not good at governance.
posted by congen at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2023
On the other hand, spending near 200 million dollars and risking many many lives to possibly maybe find two bodies is actually an incredible waste of resources.
And dropping the gas tax is also a horrible idea.
Like I want the NDP to be a serious party, but this is going to play into misperceptions of them as wasteful and not good at governance.
posted by congen at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2023
On the other hand, spending near 200 million dollars and risking many many lives to possibly maybe find two bodies is actually an incredible waste of resources.
A major reason that so many First Nations children were abused so horribly in residential schools is that Canadians are cheap, and we've been 10x as cheap when in comes to First Nations. For once, for fucking once, let's spend some money to show some respect, let's spend money on something that many First Nations people have told us is deeply important to them.
And also let's spend a lot more money on clean water and education and healthcare for First Nations, let's do all the things we promised in the treaties in the 1870s and in every decade since, and let's not worry if it'll make our taxes go up a bit. For once, let's not be cheap.
posted by clawsoon at 3:53 AM on October 5, 2023 [10 favorites]
A major reason that so many First Nations children were abused so horribly in residential schools is that Canadians are cheap, and we've been 10x as cheap when in comes to First Nations. For once, for fucking once, let's spend some money to show some respect, let's spend money on something that many First Nations people have told us is deeply important to them.
And also let's spend a lot more money on clean water and education and healthcare for First Nations, let's do all the things we promised in the treaties in the 1870s and in every decade since, and let's not worry if it'll make our taxes go up a bit. For once, let's not be cheap.
posted by clawsoon at 3:53 AM on October 5, 2023 [10 favorites]
Divide 200 million by the number of missing First Nations women who might be in the landfill, then compare that to the amount spent per individual on searches for missing upper middle class white women.
posted by eviemath at 4:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 4:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
On the other hand, spending near 200 million dollars and risking many many lives to possibly maybe find two bodies is actually an incredible waste of resources.
The "risking many many lives" part has been overblown by the Conservatives. The feasibility report referred to identified hazards and the mitigations for those hazards (CBC Link). That's what you do when you undertake something like this... identify hazards and mitigate them. It doesn't mean you don't do the thing.
And, well... frankly... this isn't $200 million to search for two women. This is $200 million for maintaining a system steeped in systemic racism that claims the lives way too many indigenous women every year. We're paying for genocide by inaction. Maybe if we don't want to spend the money investigating deaths after the fact, our police and governments and social systems should reform in such a way that they prevent these needless deaths.
Every time someone asks how we pay for a social service... whether health care, mental health supports, reconciliation, reparations, etc. point to this. We're paying for not having it already. Just we're paying for shit outcomes instead of a thriving community.
posted by eekernohan at 5:59 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
The "risking many many lives" part has been overblown by the Conservatives. The feasibility report referred to identified hazards and the mitigations for those hazards (CBC Link). That's what you do when you undertake something like this... identify hazards and mitigate them. It doesn't mean you don't do the thing.
And, well... frankly... this isn't $200 million to search for two women. This is $200 million for maintaining a system steeped in systemic racism that claims the lives way too many indigenous women every year. We're paying for genocide by inaction. Maybe if we don't want to spend the money investigating deaths after the fact, our police and governments and social systems should reform in such a way that they prevent these needless deaths.
Every time someone asks how we pay for a social service... whether health care, mental health supports, reconciliation, reparations, etc. point to this. We're paying for not having it already. Just we're paying for shit outcomes instead of a thriving community.
posted by eekernohan at 5:59 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
I think the question of spending $200 million to look for bodies in a landfill is a perfect illustration of a situation we have created.
No, it's not ideal to spend $200 million to look for bodies in a landfill. Nothing about where we're at is ideal, but the question is: are we looking to address history and try to build something more positive for the future?
That's how you end up spending $200 million to go hunting in a landfill. Now do all the other things, too, and you might just get somewhere.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:57 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
No, it's not ideal to spend $200 million to look for bodies in a landfill. Nothing about where we're at is ideal, but the question is: are we looking to address history and try to build something more positive for the future?
That's how you end up spending $200 million to go hunting in a landfill. Now do all the other things, too, and you might just get somewhere.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:57 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Search and cleaning up the Pickton farm in BC, the site of numerous murders of indigenous women cost well over $100M two decades ago. That's more than $160M in 2023 dollars.
Let's have no talk about how this is an unprecedented amount of money to spend (est. $80M to $180M). It costs what it costs.
posted by bonehead at 11:28 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
Let's have no talk about how this is an unprecedented amount of money to spend (est. $80M to $180M). It costs what it costs.
posted by bonehead at 11:28 AM on October 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
The feds just committed to a quarter of a million bucks to do an initial study of what's needed btw.
posted by bonehead at 11:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bonehead at 11:33 AM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am not enthusiastic about Wab Kinew (And aside from Uzoma Asagwara feel the returning NDP caucus members are pretty weak, though some of the new folks have a lot of promise) but I hate the Progressive Conservatives more than I hate a lot of things, so it was a very good day.
One of the things I miss most about living in Winnipeg is having a Communist candidate I can waste my vote on.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:05 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
One of the things I miss most about living in Winnipeg is having a Communist candidate I can waste my vote on.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:05 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
A white man in Ontario was murdered and in 2021 they searched a landfill for 2 months to find his body. And you know what, we didn’t hear a single PEEP about the cost. So interesting, wonder why people weren’t hostile about it
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:35 PM on October 6, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:35 PM on October 6, 2023 [5 favorites]
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