Ethel Blondin-Andrew
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Ethel Dorothy Blondin-Andrew Template:Post-nominals (born 25 March 1951) is a Canadian politician, educator, and public servant. She became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada in 1988 when she became a member of Parliament for the district of Western Arctic in the Northwest Territories.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is also the first Indigenous woman to be a Canadian Cabinet Minister.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
Early life
Blondin-Andrew was born 25 March 1951 in Tulita, Northwest Territories.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> She is a Dene woman.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1959, she was sent to Grollier Hall in Inuvik, a residential school. She left the school to live in a tent town with other runaway students. When she was twelve, she went to the hospital for back surgery and discovered that she was ill with tuberculosis.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> After she recovered, she moved to Délı̨nę with her parents, where a local priest wrote her a recommendation letter for Grandin College, a leadership school in Fort Smith, which accepted her application.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
She received a B.Ed from the University of Alberta in 1974,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> specialising in linguistics and literacy. In 1984, she became National Manager of the Indigenous Development Participation Programme which was run by the Canadian Public Service. She was appointed executive director two years later.<ref name=":0" />
Political career
In 1986, she became Assistant Deputy Minister of Culture for the Northwest Territories. In this role, she became involved in the Assembly of First Nations Aboriginal Language Foundation and the North American Language Institute. She was approached to run for the Territorial Council of the Northwest Territories but instead she ran to be Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic in the 1988 federal election.<ref name=":0" /> She won and while an MP, she became the Liberal Party's Assistant Critic for employment equity and Aboriginal affairs.<ref name=":1" /> She also served as chair of the Northern and Western Caucus and the Caucus Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, and as a member of the Special Joint Committee on a Renewed Canada, the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, the Standing Committee on Northern Development, and the Standing Committee on Electoral Reform.<ref name=":2" /> She gave her first speech in the House of Commons in the Dene language.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>
Following the 1993 federal election, the Liberal Party became the majority party and when Jean Chrétien became Prime Minister, Blondin-Andrew was appointed Secretary of State for Training and Youth on 4 November 1993.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> She helped create both Youth Service Canada and the Youth Employment Strategy. On 10 August 1998, she was elected chair for the Main Committee of the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth in Lisbon.<ref name=":2" /> On 11 June 1997, she became Secretary of State (Children and Youth).<ref name=":1" />
When Paul Martin succeed Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister, he appointed Blondin-Andrew as Minister of State (Children and Youth) on 12 December 2003. She served in this role until 20 July 2004, when she became Minister of State (Northern Development).<ref name=":1" /> She was re-elected in the 2004 federal election by a razor-thin margin of 53 votes, and was voted out of office in the 2006 federal election, after 17 years of service.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2001, her work for Aboriginal communities was formally recognized by Brock University, who awarded her an honorary doctorate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was also awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She also received the 2019 Maclean's Lifetime Achievement Award given to former MPs.<ref name=":3" />
Later career
Blondin-Andrew was the Chair of Sahtu Secretarial Incorporated from 2009 until September 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She currently works with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal life
Blondin-Andrew currently lives in Norman Wells.<ref name=":3" /> She is married to Leon Andrew and has four children and four grandchildren.<ref name=":4" />
See also
Select publications
Electoral history
Template:2006 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories Template:2004 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories Template:2000 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories Template:1997 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories Template:1993 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories Template:1988 Canadian federal election/Northwest Territories
References
External links
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- 1951 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Canadian women politicians
- 21st-century Canadian women politicians
- 20th-century First Nations people
- 20th-century First Nations women
- 21st-century First Nations people
- 21st-century First Nations women
- Dene people
- Indigenous Members of the House of Commons of Canada
- First Nations women in politics
- Liberal Party of Canada MPs
- Members of the 26th Canadian Ministry
- Members of the 27th Canadian Ministry
- Members of the House of Commons of Canada from the Northwest Territories
- Women government ministers of Canada
- Women in Northwest Territories politics
- Women members of the House of Commons of Canada
- Officers of the Order of Canada
- 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
- 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada