An invisible Eagle picked toddler Wab Kinew to change the world
Wab is a man on a mission.
It seems that when he was three years old, or maybe it was four, Wab had a vision.
He was in his bedroom, where all good three-year-olds should be at night, and he started to hallucinate. He saw an eagle.
It's always an eagle. It's never a magnificent Canada goose or a perky red-breasted robin. No, it's got to be an eagle. In this case, a Golden eagle.
Before the eagle, though, little Wab saw a pipe ("It was beautiful") with four eagle feathers hanging from it fastened by brass tacks. The eagle swooped down to grab the pipe in its claws. "The scenery faded" but Wab could still see the eagle in his bedroom, flapping its wings.
He knew he had had a vision and so did his father and so did the medicine man his father took him to. The medicine man told Wab's dad to bring him back within a month, and when he did Wab was given a handcrafted pipe and told that, from then on, he was a pipekeeper, a prestigious role among Anishinaabe people.
From that moment Wab Kinew knew he was destined for greatness.
Brandi Morin
@Songstress28
My new crush is Wab Kinew @WabKinew OMG he's like a real life freakin' Super Hero! *drool- Come rescue this Damsel in distress too plz =)
6:13 AM - 10 Feb 2012
So it must have been a jolt when he entered politics and found that people didn't automatically gush over him like Brandi did.
Before announcing his bid for office he analyzed his vulnerabilities and zeroed in on the lyrics to his rap songs which degraded women.
Through it all, Kinew has known he was born to lead, just as the eagle said.
"I hope over the course of this campaign and over the course of my career ... I prove to people I'm not just the indigenous guy. I hope that people recognize that I'm a leader," he said in a Canadian Press interview.
As for people who didn't recognize his brilliance, well "I think we all know where this stuff is coming from..." he said as he pulled the race card from his sleeve.
But, eagle aside, Wab Kinew has shown little leadership that wasn't calculated carefully in advance.
He told CJOB he intended to fight bigotry. But he stands side-by-side in public appearances with NDP cabinet minister Eric Robinson, the biggest self-confessed bigot in Manitoba.
Only two weeks earlier, the taxi industry had been under attack by aboriginal women, backed by the Southern Chiefs Organization, amid allegations of racism and sexual harassment.
The CBC highlighted one disputed area:
"Some aboriginal people said they feel discriminated against because they're asked to provide cash deposits up front.
"The cabbies said they'll make that request if they worry a passenger will skip out without paying, no matter what their racial background may be.
"I'll get that thrown in my face — 'You're only asking me for cash because I'm Indian,'" (a driver) said.
Sinclair, delving into Kinew's memoir, noted Kinew had been arrested years ago for assaulting a cab driver who tried to stop him from refusing to pay a fare.
Labels: Free Press, Manitoba16, NDP, Wab Kinew