Wab Kinew confronts a troubled past in his bid to become Manitoba premier

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When Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew strode to the podium at the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg last month, his audience couldn’t have known he was about to give one of the most courageous political speeches in the province’s history.

Manitobans head to the polls on Oct. 3 in what is anticipated to be a two-way battle between Mr. Kinew’s NDP and the governing Progressive Conservatives. Crime is expected to be a major ballot issue – in more ways than one.

Crime is certainly bad in Manitoba. The crime severity index (or CSI, compiled by Statistics Canada) increased by 14 per cent in 2022 from the year prior. In Winnipeg, the CSI rose by 21 per cent from 2021 to 2022, the highest of any major metropolitan area (with more than 100,000 people) in the country.

Winnipeg had a record number of killings in 2022 – 53 people. City police said the number of violent crimes, including assaults, murders and kidnappings, was up 24 per cent last year.

And, as has been the case in Manitoba for decades, the justice system – courtrooms, remand centres, prisons – has a disproportionate number of Indigenous people.

Which is why Mr. Kinew, who is originally from the Onigaming First Nation in northwestern Ontario, decided to give a speech that confronted his own troubled past. In many respects, he had little choice.

The Conservatives have been running attack ads (as well as ones funded by Tory-friendly third parties) that suggest Mr. Kinew is soft on crime. They’ve accused him of harbouring a plan to defund the police, an assertion he’s been quick to deny. But implicit in the ads is the overriding message that now is not the time to risk opting for someone as premier who has had run-ins with the justice system.

A former CBC radio host, Mr. Kinew has talked about his past before. It includes an assault on a taxi driver and refusing a breathalyzer test – which he was pardoned for. Domestic violence charges involving a former partner were ultimately stayed. All of this occurred when Mr. Kinew was a young man struggling with addiction issues.

Over the past two decades, he has made a remarkable recovery, rising to take over a political party and putting himself in a position to become premier. This is why some believe he was taking a risk by giving a high-profile speech that reminded voters of a period in his life of which he’s not particularly proud.

But he also knew that the Conservatives were going to continue to talk about it, in coded language to be sure, but the dog whistles around crime and Mr. Kinew’s Indigenous heritage would be loud enough for all to hear, the NDP Leader believed.

He also suspects the Conservatives are prepared to foment a wave of racism in the province in the name of getting re-elected.

“My political opponents want you to think that I’m running from my past,” Mr. Kinew said in one of the strongest sections of his speech. “But actually, my past is the reason I am running.”

He went on to say: “I want to be clear here – race is part of the landscape when it comes to public safety in Manitoba. That means Indigenous people come up in our conversations about crime in this province. We all know the stats about the over-representation in the jails and in the courts.

“But there is something that is lost in the conversation my opponents want to have about public safety. It’s a simple truth – far too often in our province, Indigenous people are the victims of crime. And so you want to know who wants real action and not just rhetoric on crime and public safety? Indigenous people.”

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson has recently started talking tough about cracking down on crime, but so far has failed to make much headway in slowing the damage done by drug traffickers in the province. It could be argued, as Mr. Kinew does, that the Conservatives have been far harder on drug addicts than the traffickers who are leading so many people into a life of misery and despair.

Mr. Kinew wants to help those with addictions while sparing no sympathy for those preying upon the most vulnerable. He wants to try and help those who want to help themselves, to give them a second chance at a decent life.

He has a good story to tell many of these folks. A story of recovery. One that might just give them hope.