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History was made Tuesday night in the Manitoba provincial election.
The New Democratic Party won a majority.
And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, its leader Wab Kinew becomes the first First Nations premier in the province’s history.
Most news organizations called the election just before midnight – on Tuesday night – declaring the New Democrats would form the next provincial government.
For weeks, opinion polls predicted an NDP win, especially in constituencies in the city of Winnipeg.
Wab Kinew, the NDP leader, becomes the province’s first First Nations premier and second Indigenous premier.
Kinew and his party campaigned on a platform of fixing the health care system, tackling the affordability crisis, and addressing crime.
“To the people of Manitoba, I want to say thank you because at the start of this campaign our team made a decision we chose to believe in you. We chose to believe that given the choice, you the people of Manitoba would embrace a positive campaign focussed on the future, focussed on fixing health care and making the economy more affordable and that you would reject the divisive message sent by our opponents.”
Kinew is a former host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
He was first elected in 2016.
The following year, he launched a successful bid for the leadership of the New Democrats.
The leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Heather Stephanson, conceded defeat, and said she had called Kinew to congratulate him.
Antoine Valley Ranch. (Courtesy Team Vancour)
A conservation group has turned an isolated ranch in north central Washington over to the Colville Tribes.
Spokane Public Radio’s Steve Jackson reports.
The 2,500 acre Antoine Valley Ranch in Okanogan County was purchased by the Western Rivers Conservancy.
After a fundraising campaign, the organization has given the entire property to the Colville Confederated tribes.
Western Rivers spokesman Nelson Mathews says Antoine Creek is an important habitat for wild steelhead.
The tribe will work to restore the creek flow during fish migration time and revive spawning habitats that have been choked for decades.
The ranch controls water rights on the creek via a small dam several miles upstream.
“The Colville tribes, their fisheries department, came up with the unique idea of controlling the timing of the water so they can benefit the migration and spawning of the steelhead.”
A pulse of water would be sent out in the spring. The flow would attract the fish to come up that section of the creek.
Later in the year, when the water starts getting low and warm, cooler water will be released when the smolts are in the stream to help them survive.
The tribe also plans to fence off the creek to keep cattle out, and restore the riparian area and the original creek stream bed.
(Courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society)
Healing events are set to begin this weekend through Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Juneau, Alaska.
The events surround the 1963 closure of the Walter Soboleff’s Memorial Presbyterian Church to acknowledge the closure and the hurt the closure brought upon the Juneau Indigenous community.
On Saturday, an unveiling of a sign at the site of the former church will take place.
On Sunday, there will be a church service with an acknowledgement and apology from the Presbyterian Church.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day will include a sharing of history and the presentation of checks in partial payment of reparations.
“The Native church,” as it was known, served the Native community, including with its Tlingit pastor Walter Soboleff, who held his first service in 1940.
The church was ordered to be closed in 1962.
The closure was said to have left Soboleff and the Native community devastated.
The acknowledgement, apology, and reparations include $950,000 for the harm and pain the closure caused.
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