'I want to leave a mark': Meet NDP Blake Desjarlais, Canada's first openly two-spirit MP
CTV
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.
