WHISSELL: Wab Kinew beat his demons — can indigenous politics do the same?

Like him or not, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew understands what it takes to overcome personal struggles.In fact, Kinew’s attempt to redeem himself from past alcoholism and violence is worthy of emulation. While anyone who’s said or done the foolish things Wab did in his youth might not seem deserving of such praise, I’d argue that all of us need redemption at some point in our lives, and few have the guts to pursue it."Being held accountable by the justice system was a necessary step,” Kinew confessed in 2023. “It forced me to confront the fact I needed to change my life, to apologize and tackle my addictions."Accountability is one thing Kinew believes necessary to overcome personal struggles. But another key to his turning things around, in my opinion, is his gratitude.“I love this province so much,” Kinew said of Manitoba. “It took a little boy from the reserve and gave me the life that I have today.”He loves Canada, too. He said so during the meeting of the Western premiers in Kananaskis, “I […] had a message for the chiefs, which is: I’m a patriot. I love this country.”And it seems this grateful man is loved back.Despite his checkered past, Kinew continues to be an anomaly in politics, touting a stellar 61% approval rating within his province. That absolutely buries his high-profile colleagues from Alberta (Smith at 39%), BC (Eby at 31%), and Ontario (Ford at 21%). Among Western premiers, only Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe (50%) comes close..Instead of choosing gratitude and accountability like Kinew does, however, many Canadians choose a perspective focused on victimhood to explain their struggles away. This rationalization avoids having to face those struggles individually and never resolves them.What are the advantages of gratitude and accountability? Well, you can’t choose to be both accountable and a victim at the same time, just like you can’t choose to be both grateful and a victim at the same time. These mutually exclusive perspectives are irreconcilable in the same way that psychologists explain feelings of anxiety and feelings of gratitude cannot co-exist in the same moment. Focusing on anxieties and related grievances can, however, easily lead down a familiar ideological path.Marxism has become the de facto “solution” to validate feelings of anxiousness and being mistreated, perpetuated through historical grievances. While we saw Marxism explode in the US during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots, it’s also spread virulently in Canada and now threatens a similar catastrophe. Like many others, I call the most recent iteration of Marxism the “woke ideology,” explained in depth in my book, linked here.That’s not to say that there’s a well-defined indigenous movement operating under a Marxist framework like BLM had. Rather, it’s that Canada’s judicial system and its functionaries, who have been named and shamed as “colonialists” enjoying “white privilege,” have, in their guilt, offered indigenous people a collectivist “solution” to alleviate anxieties and related grievances.Consolidating previous laws in 1876, the Indian Act heralded the formal recognition of Indian reserves and set the stage for a reckoning down the road. As we can see within the reserve system today, poverty, disrepair, drugs, crime, and suicide are rampant. This way of life is not sustainable for anyone.But to allay the guilt created by an ideological approach to the struggles of the indigenous in Canada, the judiciary has rendered increasingly Marxist court decisions (or “collectivist” as Western Standard columnist Brian Giesbrecht calls it)..First codified into federal law under the Gladue principles in 2019, after which judges had to take into consideration the background of accused indigenous people before determining bail, things have taken a great leap forward into Marxism with the so-called Cowichan decision in 2025. The Cowichan decision satisfies the Marxist goals of communal ownership of property and the redistribution of wealth (resources within that property). All this occurred because fee simple and submerged lands in Richmond, BC, were determined to co-exist with a previous “senior interest” of the Cowichan Nation. According to the Supreme Court of BC, the Crown had no right to remove that “senior interest.”In a typically on-point Western Standard article, retired judge Brian Giesbrecht warns us that the Cowichan decision sets a precedent likely to spread eastward. It’s my belief that Giesbrecht is entirely correct. This represents a potential turning point for the indigenous people of Canada.If they truly love their country and the provinces, like Wab Kinew clearly does, then indigenous leaders will not aim to try to redistribute property and wealth by appealing to Canada’s increasingly Marxist judiciary using identity politics. Much of the land with interest dominated by the indigenous is not in a sustainable state, so it’s something of a mystery as to why yet more should be demanded or what that would solve.Instead of that fraught route, more Canadians, whatever their background, should choose to address struggles on an individual basis like Kinew did and not simply blame historical grievances like “colonialism” as the cause for their current hardship.If Kinew blamed “colonialism” for his personal struggles, I doubt he’d ever have overcome them. Instead, he proved he’s fully capable of making the choice to fight, and he’s fully able to overcome adversity. He’s a positive example for all of us. Although he originally strongly supported the Gladue principles while working at the CBC as a journalist, he now supports a tougher justice system.Will indigenous leaders follow Kinew’s tougher road, or will they keep heading down the easy Marxist path offered to them with the Gladue principles and the Cowichan decision?

WHISSELL: Wab Kinew beat his demons — can indigenous politics do the same?

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