Front Burner - Why Wab Kinew’s election win in Manitoba was historic

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

How did Wab Kinew, leader of the Manitoba NDP, win his province’s election to become the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province? What burden does this place on him in a province struggling with reconciliation? Ian Froese, a reporter with CBC Manitoba, breaks down the campaign.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Damon Fairless. Manitoba. My dear, sweet Manitoba. Look at what we have done here tonight. You know, a lot of people in the big cities, they look down on us here in Manitoba. Fly over country, they said.

Winter pig, man, it's cold out, they said. But look what little old Manitoba did tonight. That's Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kanu on Tuesday night. Kanu led his party to a majority win in the provincial legislature. And so he's now set to become the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province in our 156 year history. It was pretty much a two party race from the beginning. The Progressive Conservative Party, the PCs, had been in power since 2016. And its leader, Heather Stephenson, Canoe's main opposition, has since stepped down.

So this is a significant political turn for the province. CBC Manitoba's provincial affairs reporter, Ian Fraze, has been covering it all. And he's here with me now for more on what WAB Canoe's historic victory means for Manitoba and the rest of Canada. Hey, Ian, thanks so much for coming back on Frontburner. Thanks for having me. So, Ian, one of the really compelling moments in Keneally's victory speech is when he addressed young Indigenous people in the province. But I want to speak to young Nietzsche's in particular. I was given a second chance in life.

And I would like to think that I've made good on that opportunity. And you can do the same. Here's how. My life became immeasurably better when I stopped making excuses and I started looking for a reason. It's especially poignant considering that Canoe's own father was a residential school survivor who wasn't allowed to vote as a young man. And so to young people who are looking for a positive path, I want to share the words that my father always told us. Andobuachigeik.

Seek your vision. Seek your vision. Dreams come true so i guess what i'm wondering is how significant is this win for indigenous communities in manitoba and even beyond it is pretty significant in some ways this is seen as a step towards reconciliation that a province in canada will now have its first First Nations premier. You know, in that speech, he's talking about, you know, young Nietzsche's and referring to his own, you know, sort of troubled past and saying, If you want to leave the party lifestyle behind, it has to be you to make the decision. If you want to join the workforce, get a new career, it has to be you to take the first step.

I can't do that for you. A government can't do that for you. You have to be the person to decide to take the first step. But once you do, my government would be here to help you. Here's what our government can do. If you decide to take the first step and leave the addictions behind, our government will make sure that there is a path to recovery for you. And I think that matters a lot for some Indigenous people,

that they can now see someone like them in a position of power. And then here in Manitoba, and I'm sure we're going to talk about the landfill search a little bit. Yeah, I'd like to get into that in a bit, actually. Yeah, there is such a frustration with the PC government on that piece. You know, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs called for Stephenson to resign. Citing Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That article encourages governments to facilitate access to and repatriation of human remains. And now here's a First Nations premier that's going to commit to that.

And that's got a lot of Indigenous people quite happy. And I definitely want to get into that. I think what I'm interested in right now is this is a guy with a really compelling CV. How did he end up leading the NDP party? Yeah, he's got quite the varied career. You know, he was a broadcaster. Basically, the show is making the case that now is the time to fix the relationship between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada. A public speaker, an author. He's

detailed this father-son relationship in his new book. It's called The Reason You Walk. And we welcome Wad Kanu to our studio. You know, early on, a rapper. you know, early on a rapper. Bigger than the boy shot and cop who pulled the trigger. It's a product of our history. How candidates can figure what you figure. A university administrator. And then he got on this path into Manitoba politics. So he had star power.

He had recognition. And then when the NDP sort of had their collapse in 2016, they were in power for, you know, 16, 17 years. Um, once that happened and Wab Kanu sort of took over the party and it sort of shaped it into his image. And now, you know, this is sort of the realization of everything he's been fighting for, for a few years, but he is quite the accomplished orator. And we see that comes across in his speech, right?

He's engaging. And I think a lot of people are latching onto that. He's someone who's talked a lot in the past about his Anishinaabe roots. He's spoken about the systemic discrimination faced by indigenous people in Manitoba, but he downplayed that for the most part in the lead up to this campaign. Why do you think that is? I think he's, he doesn't want to be branded ultimately as a First Nations Premier. He didn't want to draw attention to it. When he would be asked about questions like, you know, what would this mean to,

you know, Indigenous people or for reconciliation? He kept saying, my goal is not to be the First Nations Premier of Manitoba. My goal is to be the best premier of Manitoba. Him saying in his victory speech, you know, that call out to young Nietzsche's was something, you know, we basically hadn't heard or anything along that line for, for weeks. And yeah, and even in this day after press conference, wasn't really bringing it up. conference wasn't really bringing it up. But he did share, you know, a fairly poignant moment about that someone else on the stage there with him was his uncle, who was in residential schools. You have many questions about what it means for me. Think about what yesterday meant for him, who was in St. Mary's residential school, who experienced the worst of it in our country's history. So whatever feeling I have pales in comparison to how humble I feel to be... Now, you mentioned a little earlier that other aspects of his past have come up.

He's been really open about this. He had a DUI charge and an assault charge and then a domestic violence charge. And I should say that the DUI charge was ultimately pardoned and the domestic violence charge was stayed. But these are things that the PC party definitely picked up on as part of Stephenson's campaign. Can you tell me a bit about that? It is sort of an argument that the Tories have sort of held for a few years, even before the campaign, is that, you know, Wabkanu is a risk because of his past. NDP leader Wabkanu says his past criminal record is no disqualification. Really?

Wabkanu, a risk we can't afford. And, you know, the results in this election probably shows that, hey, Manitobans believe him, that they believe that he deserves a second chance and that he is a reformed man. The Tories had sort of a tight line to walk when they do sort of allude to this. They do it in a bit of a sly way, right? You know, there were some ads that, you know, cited old news reports about this, but otherwise, you know, there's just talk about WAB would be soft on crime. There were bus benches all throughout Winnipeg with, you know, a police officer who turned out to be a candidate for the PCs and she's got her arms crossed and the bus bench says the Wob way is the wrong way and that violent crime will get worse under Wob Canoe, that

being another one. You know, just the connections between crime and Wob Canoe, again, you're not directly talking about what happened in his 20s. But you could draw some parallels. And some people were. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization.

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That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Okay, so then there was the PC's take on the Prairie Green Landfill that's just north of Winnipeg. And just for a little background for those who haven't kept up with it. So this is a landfill where police say they believe the remains of two indigenous women, Morgan Harris and Mercedes Myron are, and both of them are allegedly victims of a serial

killer, but no officials have undertaken to search the landfill to find their bodies. During her campaign, the PC candidate, Heather Stephensonenson had a big billboard sign saying, stand firm. And it called the search or any prospective search for these two women's bodies unsafe. It estimated the cost of the search being $184 million. There have been big high-profile protests calling for the landfill to be searched. Protesters converged on Portage and Main, painting a red dress mural on the road and calling on the province to Wouldn't this have been a fairly popular issue to get on side with? Yeah, I think it did definitely surprise people.

You know, Heather Stephenson would often, you know, as premier, you know, sort of open the door to things. Hey, maybe this is worth studying. But it was in the summer when she set out and said, no, I will not search the landfill. And, you know, asked two, three days later, she was like, no. Like, you know, a term they ended up using was standing firm. This is about the safety of those individuals who would be conducting the search. I mean, the landfill is full of toxic waste. And in the report itself identified, you know, that there are safety risks.

And we are very concerned about that. She was standing firm in the summer, months before an election. And perhaps this was an issue they could have, you know, kicked down the road. And there were reasons that maybe people saw that the search wasn't practical. You know, as high as $184 million, that's a lot of money. You know, finding remains may not be a guarantee. And there would be safety concerns, though the feasibility study did say that,

yes, there are safety concerns, but they can be mitigated. The Tories, I think, took a shot at thinking that there might be a silent majority, or maybe even just a silent minority that would support them on this issue. And then as we saw in the last two weeks of that campaign, when the attack ads really started to come out, when they were actively campaigning against their opposition to this search. Why are you willing to put $184 million in Manitoba workers at risk for a search without a guarantee? They thought that this might be a last-ditch effort and they could maybe get some votes from maybe that silent minority majority. So, Crown Indigenous Relations Minister in Ottawa said that the government, the federal government, is going to be putting $740,000 towards further studying

how to conduct a landfill search. What's Wab Kanu and the NDP said about searching the landfill? They have said, you know, from the beginning in the summer that we need to try. But the bottom line is out of respect for the families and to line up with the views of the vast majority of Manitobans who are compassionate, we need to make an attempt. And then actually during the campaign, he has said, yes, we will search the landfill. It's not something they've, you know, promoted in a big way during the campaign. Again, maybe trying to sort of play to the center a little bit. You know, it actually wasn't a part of their costed platform. There was no dollar figure for the landfill

search, but it is something he has stressed that we will search. We do have to try. He does not believe it's going to cost as much as $184 million. He says he wanted a second opinion. And now that he is the premier designate in his news conference the next day, he was asked about what the feds had said, and he was pretty clear, we don't need another study. In his eyes, we need to do this the earlier, the better. So I'm just going to sum up for a second here. As of this moment on Wednesday afternoon, it looks like the NDP will take 34 seats, the PC's 22, and the liberals one solitary seat. PC leader Heather Stephenson says she's stepping down. So I want to talk about their campaign, about the PC campaign.

They seem to have a bigger budget for ads. And early on, those ads were focused on things like economic growth and tax cuts as part of their affordability pitch. But then later in the campaign, things changed, right? Yeah, that's right. The PC party has, you know, been down in the polls, things changed, right? Yeah, that's right. The PC party has, you know, been down in the polls since the pandemic and, you know, the former premier Brian Palser stepped down. Heather Stephenson came in, you know, a veteran MLA together with Heather was her slogan

that she would be a premier that talks to people and a premier that listens. And she spent a lot of time, you know, sort of opening the opening the purse strings, I guess, you know, spending more money. And that was sort of the through line at the start of this campaign. You know, it's affordability. It's the economy. What we're doing is working. midway through that campaign, uh, and just before the, the televised, the main televised debate, the NDP had sort of taken a bigger lead again. And we saw the PCs, you know, perhaps in a last ditch effort to salvage their campaign to, you know, take ads that took a bit of a, they, they went the attack ad route.

So yeah, one of the things they did was they brought up the parental rights issue a lot. The idea that parents should have more say in what kids learn at school around gender identity and sexual orientation. How did that factor into the campaign? It was something they just talked about in August before the campaign began and then weren't really bringing it up. But then, you know, sometime during the campaign, the ads are everywhere, all over Winnipeg on, you know, sort of the garbage and recycling bins. They have one of their candidates, Abhi Khan, sort of speaking to it. Look, I know I'm biased, but who knows better than us? As parents, what's best for our kids in school?

That's why we're the only party fighting for enhanced parental rights for you. Those ads were, I would argue, a play towards some of the newcomers to Winnipeg living in some of the suburbs that have the potential of flipping. The newcomers that might be a little more conservative leaning, you know, that rub people the wrong way. Again, this was a premier in Heather Sampson who talked about, you know, togetherness. And yet he was an issue that was inflaming, you know, people on the left and particularly members of the LGBTQ community.

And then there was an ad that sort of gave the impression that you're alone in the voting booth. Because during an election, it's okay to disagree on issues without the fear of being judged. So vote like no one is watching because no one is. So this is kind of Wab Kanu's election to lose, right? He was the front runner. It seemed clear for a while that the NDP were likely to win and win the majority. What ultimately clinched it

for him? It was a message of healthcare and kind of stopping the austerity that was sort of a hallmark of the first, you know, five, six years of the Tories run in office. And then Brian Palliser stepped down, Heather Stubbson came in, she opened the books, she increased spending everywhere, but it didn't seem to resonate with voters or they didn't seem to really recognize those changes on the healthcare piece though this is a province where during the pandemic we had to airlift dozens of people away to intensive care units in other provinces because we ran out of room and even before then the tories reorganized the healthcare system converting three of winnipeg's six ERs into urgent care centers. Just sort of the anger over that. And then the pandemic happened and then the staffing shortages got worse. So during this campaign for the NDP, it was talking about healthcare almost every day.

That message clearly resonated. And then in terms of affordability, what were the specifics he's talking about there? He has, again, to maybe take a bit of a centrist bent, which tends to work in Manitoba politics, he's followed the lead of a conservative premier, at least in Alberta, in eliminating the gas tax for a temporary period, at least six months while inflation is still high. And this is part of a just transition. We need to bring working people along with us as we fight climate change. And right now that means helping people out at the pump, saving you money. So he, you know, made the price of gas cheaper. And he's also promising to freeze hydro rates for a year. Our renters will get a higher tax credit. And if you want to buy an

electric vehicle, the government will give you a rebate. So that's, as you say, very centrist goals and aspirations. What are the challenges you see for Canoe and his government trying to reach those goals? What do the next few years look like for him? He is trying to fix the healthcare system. And as we can see throughout the country, fixing healthcare is super hard. You know, he was saying in his day after news conference, you know, same with the landfill search,

we have to try. And we have to try to make health care better. Should we just throw up our hands and say fixing health care is going to be too difficult? Or should we say we are going to have the ambition to make an effort? So he's made his biggest task a really hard task. I think another challenge will be in reconciliation. There are a lot of Indigenous people who have high hopes and fixing some of the issues. You know, the child poverty rates in Manitoba are through the roof.

There are, you know, many kids through the CFS system that are taken from their families. Those numbers remain high. Fixing those issues again will take time, but will it be enough, you know, past this sort of honeymoon period he might be getting? Yeah, it's, it's interesting because as much, um, time and space as the landfill issue is taken up and obviously a really important one. There have been Indigenous activists saying, you know, that there's more to reconciliation than this one issue.

There's issues with, as you said, education, employment, community support, childcare. So how much work has Wabakunu and his government got to do to make Indigenous folks in the province feel that they're being heard? Yeah, it's a really tough question. Because in some ways we're, well, this is, this is unchartered territory to, to have, you know, a first nations premier that that's leading the province that, that gets the issues, you know you know, whose dad was in a residential school. I do believe he will get some breathing room from the Indigenous community. I mean, there's also a pledge to have, you know, more women's shelters. I think a cabinet committee

around the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. I think all these steps are appreciated and he will get breathing room for a bit, but there will be a desire at some point for, you know, action and action beyond just searching the landfill. Okay. And thanks so much. We'll be following it. And it's really great to talk to you. Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. Okay, that's it for today. I'm Damon Fairless. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. I'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.