Award-winning author Wab Kinew has been elected premier of Manitoba.

He is set to become the first First Nations premier in Canada after the Manitoba NDP won 34 seats in the provincial election on October 3, well above the 22 seats of the runner-up Progressive Conservative Party.

In his acceptance speech, a beaming Kinew thanked the Manitoba electorate.

“At the beginning of this campaign, our team made a decision. We chose to believe in you. We chose to believe that, given the choice, you, the people of Manitoba would embrace a positive campaign focused on fixing healthcare and making the economy more affordable, and that you would reject the divisive message sent by our opponents,” Kinew said. “I want to thank you for investing your trust in us.”

Kinew was first elected to the provincial legislature in 2016, and was elected leader of the Manitoba NDP in 2017.

Before entering politics, Kinew worked as a journalist, musician, and broadcaster, and published the first of his four books in 2015, the award-winning memoir The Reason You Walk. He continued writing after entering politics, and turned to kidlit, with the picture book Go Show the World (Tundra Books, 2018) and YA fantasy novel Walking in Two Worlds (Penguin Teen, 2021) and its follow-up, The Everlasting Road (Penguin Teen, 2023).