Do we like Wab Kinew?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Solid record on LGBTQ+ and Indigenous issues, offset by contested allegations, an old rap-lyrics apology and a push for fossil-fuel exports.
Kinew is the first First Nations premier of any Canadian province, leading the Manitoba NDP to a majority in October 2023. Before politics he was a rapper and broadcaster, and his memoir The Reason You Walk was a finalist for the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He's the rare pollie who arrived with a whole second career already behind him.
The baggage is real. In 2017 a former partner told the Canadian Press he assaulted her in 2003, and he was charged at the time; the charges were later stayed, and Kinew denied it, saying he couldn't accept responsibility for something he didn't do. That's a stayed charge and a denial, not a finding, but it dogged his leadership run.
On the harm check, the early record is the awkward bit. Back in 2016 he posted an apology letter over offensive lyrics, after critics pointed to what CBC called a slew of homophobic and misogynistic online comments. What counts is what came after: his government is moving to add gender expression to Manitoba's human rights code, and the climate-and-energy side is more mixed.
The planet is where it gets complicated. His government's energy policy backs First Nations wind projects with loan guarantees and tighter oversight of oil and gas, but it openly keeps fossil fuels in the mix. He has also been pitching the Churchill Plus port-and-corridor project to Ottawa, with environmental and Indigenous groups raising concerns about what could ship through Hudson Bay.
At work, the other allegation is from 2024, when Mark Wasyliw, an MLA removed from the NDP caucus, alleged Kinew lunged at him and yanked his arm at a 2019 press conference. Wasyliw called him a “toxic bully”, Kinew has denied the allegation, and a Tory motion for an investigation did not pass. It's one man's account against a denial, so we leave it as a close call.
The good stuff is concrete. His government kept a promise the previous Tories rejected, searching Prairie Green Landfill for Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains were found, and in December 2025 he stood with Ashlee Shingoose's family as the Brady Road landfill search began. That is following through for First Nations families when it would have been easier not to.