Here is a sample of the places they were featured in the media on October 5th:

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies with the Winnipeg Free Press: Election ‘free and fair’ despite delayed results, independent agency says

Réal Carrière, assistant professor of political studies with The U.S. Sun: Inside Wab Kinew’s inspirational marriage to wife Lisa Monkman after historic win as the only First Nations premier

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies with CBC Manitoba: Wab Kinew says his party will be there to help you when you need it but you need to take the first steps

Niigaan Sinclair, Indigenous Studies professor and Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies with Radio-Canada: Feds commit $740K toward search of Winnipeg-area landfill on National Day of Action for MMIWG

The win also added a new chapter to Manitoba’s history books with it’s first First Nations leader as Premier with Wab Kinew.

Here is some of the coverage on election night and the day after with contributions from some of the University’s political experts. 

Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political science with CBC:  Dougald Lamont concedes to NDP in St. Boniface, steps down as Manitoba Liberal leader

Royce Koop, professor of political studies with CityNews: Expert predicts NDP victory in final hours of Manitoba election

Niigaan Sinclair, Indigenous Studies professor with Your Morning: Manitoba NDP wins majority government

Royce Koop, professor of political studies with  The Globe and Mail: NDP wins Manitoba election as Wab Kinew set to become first First Nations provincial premier in Canada

Réal Carrière, an assistant professor at University of Manitoba who specializes in Indigenous politics spoke with Reuters and was shared in the Daily Mail UK:  Kinew to be Manitoba’s only First Nations premier as province elects NDP government

Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political science with CBC Manitoba Radio One: Wab Kinew says his party will be there to help you when you need it but you need to take the first steps

Manitoba voters have elected the NDP’s Wab Kinew as premier. His election is both a break with recent Manitoba political history and a continuation of the long history of Indigenous involvement in electoral politics in Manitoba.

Kinew is Manitoba’s first First Nations premier, though not its first Indigenous leader. That mantle goes to Louis Riel if we consider the legislative assembly of Assiniboia that named the Métis leader president in 1869 to be a legitimate precursor to the province of Manitoba.

A 2019 Act passed by the Manitoba legislature did just that when it named Riel Manitoba’s first premier.

The title of first Indigenous premier might also go to John Norquay, Manitoba’s elected premier from 1878 to 1887. An ally of the federal Conservative party from the mid-1870s onwards, Norquay was born in 1841 the Red River settlement. He spoke French, English, Cree, Annishinaabemowin and Bungee, a dialect associated with Manitoba’s Interlake region and its Métis history.

In his new biography of Norquay, historian Gerald Friesen portrays a thoughtful leader who was a loyal kinsman to his relations, and led hunting parties and negotiations with the federal government.

Settler colonial order

Since 1887, Manitoba has been presided over by non-Indigenous people. Apart from outgoing Conservative Premier Heather Stefanson, all of them have been men.

This tells us a great deal about the settler colonial order that unfolded in Manitoba in the wake of the Manitoba Act of 1870 (which included the qualification that women could not vote), the dispersal and dispossession of Métis people, the Indian Act of 1876, the development of a reserve system and the creation of a federal system of Indian residential schools in the middle of the 1880s.

Laws emerged in these years that barred Indigenous people from holding office or voting. They were in force for part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

In 1886, Manitoba’s government disqualified “Indians or persons of Indian blood receiving an annuity from the Crown” from the right to vote or hold office. The vote was not restored to status Indians who received treaty annuities until 1952, some 36 years after Manitoba became the first province to grant women the right to vote on the same terms as men.

It was not until 1981 that Manitoba elected a First Nations member of the provincial legislature, Elijah Harper, in the northern riding of Rupertsland.

Indigenous people who were not excluded by law from voting or holding office — most notably Métis — often discovered that informal barriers, including violence, were an effective check on their participation in electoral politics.

Change in Manitoba

Kinew is Manitoba’s first First Nations premier. He is an Annishinaabeg, a citizen of Onigaming First Nation in the Treaty Three region of northwestern Ontario and the son of a residential school survivor.

This represents a significant change, but one that has been in the works for some time. The 2019 provincial election returned the most racially diverse legislative assembly in the province’s history, including seven Indigenous members, three Black members and the first openly non-binary member, Uzoma Asagwara.

In government, Kinew will sit alongside seasoned and talented Indigenous legislators, most of them women. This includes Amanda Lathlin (The Pas), Bernadette Smith (Point Douglas) and Nahanni Fontaine.

Fontaine has represented the Winnipeg riding of St. John’s since 2016, and most recently served as House leader, critic for families and spokesperson for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited People.

The election of Kinew’s NDP in 2023 represents a powerful rejection of the racial politics of recent Conservative governments led by Stefanson and her predecessor, Brian Pallister.

Annishinaabeg scholar and journalist Niigaan Sinclair argues that Pallister’s views on Indigenous people, who make up about 30 per cent of the province’s population, marked the end of his political career in 2021.

The hope that Pallister’s replacement would offer a kinder and gentler version of conservative politics never materialized.

The Stefanson campaign’s decision to make a platform out of their refusal to support the search of the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of three First Nations women — Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman — became a symbol of her government’s callous disregard of Indigenous lives.

Timbits and hockey

The 2023 election also represents a return to a social democratic politics familiar to Manitobans.

In a campaign managed by NDP veteran Brian Topp, Manitobans saw a genial, blue-suited Kinew offering Timbits and talking hockey. On the campaign trail, Kinew emphasized his party’s commitment to addressing a health-care system in shambles and distanced himself from calls to redirect resources away from the police and incarceration.

The campaign had little to say specifically about what might usually be defined as Indigenous issues. When former NDP premier Gary Doer publicly endorsed Kinew, it signalled a connection between this new government and the one that governed Manitoba from 1999 to 2016.

When Kinew took the microphone at the Orange Shirt Day Survivors Walk and Pow Wow in Winnipeg’s downtown hockey arena three days before the election, he was in an orange Blue Bombers shirt. Kinew urged Indigenous people to retain their languages and cultures and prove that the architects of residential schools failed.

Kinew is not Manitoba’s first Indigenous premier, but he is the first since 1897. He is the first premier who identifies as Annishinaabeg, whose family history includes residential schools, and whose direct ancestors would have been banned from voting until mid-century.

Kinew’s election is both a break in history and a continuation of important elements of Manitoba’s past. This includes long and complicated histories of Indigenous people in electoral politics and of social democratic provincial governments that have faced serious challenges in addressing poverty and delivering health care.

The high-octane anti-Indigenous racism represented by the Conservative governments of Stefanson and Pallister appears to be no longer sustainable in Manitoba.

Royce Koop, a professor of Political Studies on CityNews Winnipeg: Many new candidates looking for a seat in Manitoba election

Christopher Adams, adjunct political studies professor with the Winnipeg Free Press: Poll data projects NDP majority

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies on CBC Manitoba: Weaponized by PCs, sidelined by NDP: Indigenous concerns largely absent from Manitoba election

Jesse Hajer an assistant professor in Economics and labour studies wrote an opinion piece for the Winnipeg Free Press: PC tax cut claims don’t add up

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies with The Canadian Press: Manitoba NDP leader rallies troops, Liberals promise help for newcomers

Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political studies with CTV Winnipeg: Manitoba politicians mark Orange Shirt Day, PC leader maintains low media profile

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies and Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political studies both commented for CBC Manitoba on: Voters balance ‘hard time believing politicians’ with desire to cast a ballot in Manitoba’s upcoming election

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies for CBC Manitoba: Manitoba NDP holds rally, Liberals pledge newcomer supports in campaign trail’s final days

Jesse Hajer, assistant professor, Economics and Labour studies spoke with CBC Manitoba: Economists question whether re-elected PCs can make up $1B in lost taxes with economic growth

Christopher Adams, adjunct professor in Political Studies spoke with The Canadian Press: One week out from Manitoba election, Tories focus on seats they already hold

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies spoke with The Canadian Press: Manitoba Progressive Conservatives ‘pulling out stops’ with attack ads: analyst

Melanie Janzen, a professor in the department of curriculum, teaching and learning at the faculty of education spoke with CBC Manitoba:

Education funding a top priority for some Manitobans in upcoming election

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies spoke with CBC Manitoba: Young voters disappointed by lack of concrete climate plans in Manitoba election

Fang Wan, professor of marketing at the Asper School of Business spoke with CJOB: Campaign ads on social media can bring awareness, Manitoba prof says

University of Manitoba experts have been busy answering your election questions.

Here is a smattering of places UM professors are quoted between September 19th and 20th, 2023:

CBC Manitoba:  With no Liberal challenger, NDP hopes to pick up seat in southeastern Manitoba’s Dawson Trail

The Canadian Press:  Manitoba Tories are often showcasing held constituencies in election campaign

CTV Winnipeg: The constituencies to watch ahead of Manitoba’s election

Global News Winnipeg: Manitoba Tory leader’s promise of 2 million people by 2030 an ambitious goal: academics

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba, said he’s not surprised to hear of people rethinking how they’ll vote. 

“Over the past, you know, 30 or 40 years, Canadians as well as Manitobans have become less connected to their political party,” he said.

Read here

Doer, who led the NDP to three consecutive majorities and enjoyed strong public support before retiring in 2009, said he has seen Kinew listen to people and bring them together.

While it’s not unusual for a former premier to endorse the new leader of their party, Doer’s endorsement is notable because he was popular beyond party lines and his support may win over some voters who don’t traditionally vote NDP, said political analyst Paul Thomas.

“He won back-to-back-to-back elections on the basis of hitting that sweet spot in the Manitoba political culture where pragmatism meets progressive thinking,” said Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

Read here

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