Kinew’s cabinet to be sworn in Wednesday

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This article was published 13/10/2023 (737 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba premier-designate Wab Kinew and his NDP cabinet will be sworn in Wednesday with pomp, ceremony and some intensely proud Red River jigging.

Kinew announced Friday the province’s new executive council will take the oath of office 15 days after the governing Progressive Conservatives were voted out of office Oct. 3.

“This will be a government for all Manitobans,” Kinew said in a statement ahead of being sworn-in as the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province.

“We are extraordinarily humbled by this incredible opportunity to represent and serve the people of our province. Our government will work together tirelessly to make life better for you.”

The NDP said the cabinet will represent the province geographically, culturally and as a society, and its focus will be on health care, affordability, and “bringing Manitobans together to build their shared future.”

The swearing-in ceremony will be conducted by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville at the Leaf in Assiniboine Park.

It will include the lighting of the qulliq (the Inuit lamp that provides light and warmth to the Earth), the Dakota Hotain Singers and Norman Chief Memorial Dancers (featuring a former NDP cabinet minister).

“You certainly can’t talk about the history of Manitoba without talking about that unique relationship with First Nations, Métis and Inuit people,” said Kevin Chief, who served as MLA for Point Douglas from 2011-17 and held two cabinet posts (jobs and the economy, and children and youth opportunities).

“Whether you’re Indigenous or non-Indigenous, this is our collective history and heritage,” said Chief, who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End and is Anishinaabe/Métis.

“But we can’t tell people that’s important. We’ve got to show people and the best way to show people is to celebrate it through dance and through music and through culture,” said Chief, whose traditional Métis dance troupe is named in honour of his late father.

“It’s one of those monumental things that you get to share with people and I think it’s going to create the right kind of conversation across the country around reconciliation. I think it provides a lot of confidence and hope to people. I’m just so proud to be able to be part of it.”

Chief was once eyed as a potential NDP leader in 2016, but left politics for family reasons.

On Friday, Chief said he’s long been close friends with Kinew, who took a similar path from the University of Winnipeg to provincial politics, and knows the sacrifices the premier-designate and his family have made.

“I’m very, very proud of the campaign that he ran.”

The NDP won 34 of 57 electoral divisions, forming a majority government and winning 16 more seats than in 2019. The Tories were pushed into opposition with 22 seats; the Liberals were left with just one.

MLAs won’t be sworn in until they’re officially declared elected. They’re considered “candidates” until after the Oct. 19 deadline to apply for a judicial recount. If no such application is made, Manitoba’s chief electoral officer will declare candidates elected Oct. 20.

Ministers of the Crown, however, can be sworn in without having a seat in the legislature.

Choosing to hold Wednesday’s ceremony at Winnipeg’s massive indoor horticultural attraction is a cause for hope among Manitoba environmental advocates.

“The Leaf is a good message to show their commitment to nature,” said Josep Seras Gubert, executive director of the Green Action Centre that delivers programs promoting more sustainable living.

He said Manitoba’s non-profit organizations that do such work at little cost to the province had their funding cut by the previous PC government.

“We hope it’s a shift toward a new direction — a turn of the leaf,” Seras Gubert added.

In 2016, when the PCs took over the government from the NDP, premier Brian Pallister held his swearing-in ceremony at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The fiscal hawk’s first cabinet consisted of just 12 ministers — two-thirds the size of NDP predecessor Greg Selinger’s cabinet.

The last time the Leaf made national political headlines was July 10, when Premier Heather Stefanson welcomed Canada’s premiers at the structure to kick off their summer meeting in Winnipeg. They were met by protesters demanding a search of the Prairie Green Landfill, where city police believe the remains of at least two slain Indigenous women are buried.

Wednesday’s ceremony, however, promises to be a joyous event, Chief said.

“We’re going there to jig, man. We’re not going there to do the old-time waltz.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca