'I want to leave a mark': Meet NDP Blake Desjarlais, Canada's first openly two-spirit MP
For Blake Desjarlais, becoming an MP wasn’t something he thought he’d pursue. But now, after connecting with the NDP ahead of the 2021 federal election, he’s made history as Canada’s first openly two-spirit member of Parliament.
The 27-year-old won his riding of Edmonton Griesbach, Alta. with 40.5 per cent of the vote, unseating Conservative incumbent Kerry Diotte after a tight race to the finish line. Now, he’s got high hopes and aspirations for what he can bring to Ottawa as a young Metis person.
“I want to leave a mark,” he said in a recent interview with CTVNews.ca.
Desjarlais is one of 50 rookie MPs elected in the 2021 federal election. CTVNews.ca is profiling five—one from each party with a seat in the Commons— in the lead-up to the first sitting day of the 44th Parliament.
Fluent in Cree, Desjarlais grew up at the Fishing Lake Metis Settlement in Alberta, one of eight remaining Metis settlements left in Canada.
He lived there with his aunt Grace, who adopted Blake after his biological mother Brenda— a survivor of the '60s Scoop supporting herself as a sex worker in Edmonton—surrendered him.
“She saved my life,” Desjarlais said.
He moved back to Edmonton after high school, to study architecture at MacEwan University. While there, Desjarlais said he faced racism and discrimination for who he was.
It was a decade ago, he said.
“People weren't talking about residential schools like they are today. They weren't talking about some of the issues like systemic racism that are so prevalent in our experience in this world, then,” he said.
So he left, enrolling then at the University of Victoria, where he completed his studies, focusing on Indigenous and political affairs. In 2016, he was appointed the national director for the Metis Settlements General Council, a role in which he was engaged in negotiations with the federal government over the last five years.
“I never really thought I’d see myself running in federal politics,” he said, adding that he had considered maybe running for an Indigenous leadership role, because in past interactions with other parties, he got the impression there was always a feeling of politicians reaching out to Indigenous or queer people in order to help them fulfill their mandates.
“They would often come to us with what they wanted to see us do,” Desjarlais said.
But then he met with the federal NDP and their approach was different, he said.
“They didn't ask the questions of how we could serve their purpose… They just said: ‘We're interested in helping people, we're interested in making sure people who are champions in the community have the tools they need to make sure that they feel represented’… They recognized me as a whole person with expertise in a vast variety of sectors,” said Desjarlais.
During the campaign, he had help from someone who knew well what it was like to run in that riding, and against Diotte: Janis Irwin, an Alberta MLA and federal candidate for the NDP in 2015.
“When I heard that Blake was first interested, I was just really excited,” she told CTVNews.ca
During the 36-day campaign, the appetite for change was strong at the doors, Irwin said. Between weak support for the Liberals, anger at the Conservatives both federally and provincially, and enough of an interest in the People’s Party of Canada to siphon off votes, the New Democrats liked their chances.
That Diotte was one of the 62 Conservative MPs who voted against the proposed conversion therapy ban in the last Parliament may have also been a factor, with Irwin noting there is a “strong, growing queer and trans community,” in the region.
“I don't know if I saw the day where, you know, me, the sole openly queer MLA, would be represented by my MP who's the sole two-spirit federal member… That alone is pretty, pretty incredible,” Irwin said. “Just think about that young, two-spirit kid who sees Blake in a position like that, and how meaningful it is.”
Heading into the new Parliament, Desjarlais is aware of the pressures that may be put on him as a voice for several underrepresented groups, including progressives in Alberta.
“This often blue blanket that Alberta has been covered in has a few holes, and I really hope to try to funnel as much of that other perspective out that hole as I can,” he said.
“I want to play the best role I can do for helping people, and the boundaries of Edmonton-Griesbach aren't exclusive to that help… Even if you're an Indigenous person or person of color, or queer, you can come to us and I'm going to make sure that we help advocate for you too,” he said.
Following the party’s first post-election caucus meeting, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced that Desjarlais will be a part of his House leadership team, taking on the role of deputy caucus chair. He said it’s his goal in that position to make his caucus feels their voices, and the voices of their constituents are heard.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Hulk Hogan, hurricanes and a blockbuster recording: A week in review of the Trump hush money trial
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Local Spotlight
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.