Premier ‘just like the rest of us’ Suit-wearing pallbearer at friend’s funeral stops to change stranded family’s blown tire before donning jersey for Jets playoff game By: Chris Kitching Posted: 4:28 PM CDT Monday, Apr. 22, 2024

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Tasha Spillett was on a long drive back to Winnipeg from a funeral Saturday, when one of her vehicle’s wheels began making the kind of sound no one wants to hear on a highway.

Stranded due to a blown tire with her four-year-old daughter and mother, an elder, help soon arrived in the form of Premier Wab Kinew and his wife, Lisa Monkman.

“He was still in his suit, and he went right to work changing our tire,” said Spillett. “We were two tired families — mourning families — trying to make it home safely.”

Spillett spoke to the Free Press Monday to explain the story behind a viral photo that showed Kinew changing the tire on a gravel road next to Highway 6 between St. Laurent and Woodlands.

The 35-year-old author said she took the picture and sent it to her husband, singer-songwriter Leonard Sumner, to show him help had arrived.

Sumner was about 90 minutes away when Spillett was forced to pull over. She tried to get help from a roadside service, but her calls kept dropping.

Spillett was returning from Little Saskatchewan and Pinaymootang First Nations in the Interlake after attending a funeral for Sumner’s father, Jerry.

Kinew, a close friend, was a pallbearer at the funeral. The premier and Monkman weren’t far behind when they received a call to let them know Spillett needed help.

“I was at my emotional capacity, and so was my daughter,” said Spillett, whose book, I Sang You Down From the Stars, made the New York Times bestseller list for children’s picture books in 2021.

Monkman was comforting her when she snapped photos of Kinew swapping the blown tire for a smaller spare. Spillett said he didn’t know he was being photographed.

One of the photos was widely shared without context on social media. Spillett said her aunt posted the image on Facebook to show her friends and was overwhelmed by the attention it received.

Her aunt removed the picture after some people posted negative or racist comments, she said.

Kinew and Monkman’s act of kindness is an example of relatives taking care of each other, and nothing to do with politics or image, said Spillett.

Since winning October’s provincial election, Kinew’s approval rating has climbed to 63 per cent — making him Canada’s most popular premier — according to an Angus Reid Institute poll completed in early March.

Kinew is seen as a genuine person or “just like the rest of us” by many Manitobans, which has contributed to his popularity rating, said Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders.

“A lot of times, politicians seem like they’re part of a different class. When we do find someone who is one of us, who we can relate to, we respond to that in really significant ways,” she said.

“It just shows how much voters are hungry for that human touch.”

With Kinew, voters pick up on empathy and compassion, and they relate to him via experiences of an “average” Manitoban — from changing a tire to cheering for the Winnipeg Jets, said Saunders.

Kinew was sporting a Jets captain Adam Lowry jersey — white, of course — when he and Monkman joined the Winnipeg Whiteout madhouse inside Canada Life Centre Sunday evening for Game 1 of the NHL club’s first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.

Season-ticket holder Nathan Friesen, who was sitting behind the couple, took a picture of Kinew, 42, and Monkman enthusiastically high-fiving each other after one of the Jets’ goals in an emotional roller-coaster 7-6 victory.

“I thought it was kind of impressive he wasn’t sitting up in some box seats, and that he was mingling with the general public and fans,” Friesen, 33, said. “He seems like a nice, unassuming guy.”

Fans came up to chat with Kinew or ask for a photo.

“He was very approachable and very generous with his time that way,” said Friesen.

Spillett said young First Nations people approached Kinew — Manitoba’s first First Nations premier — after Saturday’s funeral to shake his hand or request a photo.

“He took time for each and every one of them,” she said.

Kinew creates strong ties with people because he values and fosters relationships, she said.

“People saw that humanness when he was on the side of a road changing a tire in a suit,” she said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca