Manitoba founded by Mtis but oppressive history soon made Indigenous premiership impossible

Manitobahas existed as a province for 153 years and, in that time, has had24 premierslead it through rewarding and turbulent times, marking milestones and influencing history.

Despite its lengthy resum, the provincecomes up short in two significant measures. It hasnever elected apremier who is female or First Nations.

Depending how Manitobans cast their ballots on Oct. 3, new ground could be broken.

Heather Stefansonis the province's first female premier, a position she has held sinceNovember 2021. Butshe didn't lead the Progressive Conservatives to victory in an election. Shewon a leadership voteafter Brian Pallister resigned.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew, who lived on the Onigaming First Nationin northwestern Ontario, has the edge on Stefansonheading into the election, according to recent poll results.

But he insists he's not out to make history for his ethnicity.

"I'm going to turn to great role models, leaders past that we've had, to try and be the best leader that I can be. Butmy goal is not to be the First Nations premier of Manitoba. My goal is to be the best premier of Manitoba," Kinewtold CBC News.

Ral Carrire, anassistant professor in the University of Manitoba's political studies department, saidthat's probably the best approach for Kinew.

Should Kinew win, it doesn't mean Indigenous people will suddenly have more influence or a stronger voice.Representing all Manitobans is exactly what he willbe requiredto do, Carriresaid.

"It's a very hard job to be Indigenous andbe a political representative because you do have tobalance the role.It's very restrictive,"Carriresaid.

In her time as premier, it's not like Stefanson has advanced anagendaaround women's concerns, he said.

"One thing it does signal isan alternative voice with the potential to understand those issues and that's an important thing for democracy," Carriresaid."Western democracy has been dominatedby white men and their voices, their perspectives."

A victory by Kinew wouldn't even necessarily be celebrated by all Indigenous people.

There are Indigenous people who support different political parties and others who believe running for public office undermines Indigenous sovereignty, said Carrire, who has both First Nations and Mtisancestry.

"There's still kind of a conception that there's a monolithic Indigenous peoples and that we all want the same thing. We don't," he said.

"There's a perspectivethat running for office, even voting, is a sign that you're accepting colonialism,you're accepting the oppression of Indigenous political orders."

Whether it is supported or not, a Kinew victory would showIndigenous people the possibilities that exist"and that's very aspirational,"Carriresaid.

Manitoba's 1st Indigenous premier

Since its founding, Manitoba has had oneIndigenous premier, despite leading allprovinces in terms of the proportion of its population who identify as Indigenous, according to StatisticsCanada.

John Norquay, who wasMtis,served as premierfrom 1878 to 1887.

He oversaw the establishment of many of Manitoba's foundational systems, saidGerald Friesen,a professor of Canadian history at the University of Manitoba from 1970 to 2011 and author of several books.

"He was really supervising a cabinet and a government that put new Manitoba, the Manitoba we know, on the map," Friesen said.

"The courts and the school districts and the university and the municipal governments and the highways and the branch railways, all of that stuff, even the route of the CPR, he had a hand in."

Norquayappealed to people because he related to them. Hespoke a number of languages, including English, French, Creeand Saulteaux.

He also commanded attention because he wasa big manover six feet and weighing more than300 pounds. Yet he carried a gentle touch.

"He spoke brilliantly and everybody commented on how eloquent he was and how he spoke with a soft, smooth way about him that they just found very attractive," said Friesen, whose upcoming book is titledThe Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman.

Honorary1st premier: Louis Riel

In late 2019, Kinew introducedThe Louis Riel Actto bestow Riel with the honorary title of "First Premier of Manitoba." The bill was introduced four times but never passed.

Riel's provisional government negotiated the terms that led to the province entering Confederation. He neverserved as a Manitoba MLA but waselectedthree times as an MP. However, herefused to take hisseatas he feared for his life and livedin exile.

One of the side effects of Confederation for Manitoba is that it beganthe suppression of Indigenous people.

Col. Garnet J. Wolseley led an expeditionary force from Ottawa to Winnipeg tooversee the transition of power from Riel to Canada, but also toconfront Riel and the Mtis for the Red River Resistance and execution of Ontarian Thomas Scott.

Riel and others from hisgovernment fled before the force arrived. But Mtiswho remained were tyrannized by the troops. Eventually, manymoved westinto Saskatchewan and Alberta, while others hidtheir ethnicity.

Even Norquay, in spite of his popularity, faced challenges.

Hewas elected by acclamationin 1870, representing High Bluff. But by the second election in 1874, High Bluff had become home to many Ontarians,and Norquaymoved to the Mtisstronghold of St. Andrews forthe support he needed.

"Norquay had a substantial following at St. Andrews but for the rest of the province, it had become very quickly European-Canadian,"Friesen said.

Norquaybecame premier in 1878 but won his seat by just eight votes. He managed to stay in office until a financial scandal in 1887.

"If you look at the very first elections, at that point in the 1870s, a lot of people were Indigenous and a lot of people wereMtisin Manitoba.But if you look at the trends, you start to seeless after 1885," Carriresaid.

Part of that was due to Mtisleaving the province, while others buriedtheirmixed blood ethnicity, unwilling to identify as Mtis.

"There was definitely a real negative time for Indigenous people. You kind of had to go underground," Carriresaid.

As for First Nations people, they were confined to reserves by the federal government, prohibited from participating in theCanadian electoral process unless theysurrendered theirIndian status and band membership.

It wasn't until 1960 that Parliament granted First Nations the right to vote and run for office.

Like Norquay, whose term spanned a transition in societal views, Kinewis emerging at another crossroads, Friesen said.

"Canada has undergone a very significant change in the last decade and we are much more conscious of Indigenous people. We are much more aware that their civilizations are just as exciting and just as rich as any European one and that the 100 years when they were downgraded was a mistake and a tragic failure on the part of the rest of us," he said.

"There is still racism in the province, of course, and Wab faces that, but he also has vast support among many, many whites in this province."

The magnitude of the situation isn't lost onKinew, whoselate father was a residential school survivor and was not allowed to vote asa young man.

"And I have a shot at potentially leading the province," Kinew said in an interview with The Canadian Press last month.