Jeannie Marie-Jewell (born October 7, 1961) is a territorial level politician from northern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. She served as the first female Speaker in the history of the Northwest Territories legislature.

Political career

Marie-Jewell was first elected to the Northwest Territories legislature in the 1987 Northwest Territories for the riding of

Slave River The Slave River is a Canadian river that flows from the confluence of the Rivière des Rochers and Peace River in northeastern Alberta and empties into Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The river's name is thought to derive from the ...

. She served that district until it was abolished in 1991. She rose to prominence in her first term in office holding a number of cabinet posts. She became Minister of Social Services, Minister of Personnel and Minister Responsible for the Women's Secretariat. She was also the Minister Responsible for the Highway Transport Board and Workers' Compensation Board and Minister for Youth. Marie-Jewell ran for re-election in the new electoral district of

Thebacha ThebachaConstituency map of the NWT
is a

1991 Northwest Territories general election. She was elected speaker on December 13, 1993. She served as speaker until December 15, 1994. In 1994 Marie-Jewell filed a complaint with the Northwest Territories ethics commissioner that eventually led to the resignation and inquiry into Premier Don Morin's conflict-of-interest in the shipment of government owned bison being shipped to a ranch in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Marie-Jewell was defeated running for re-election in the

1995 Northwest Territories general election File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strikes ...

by Michael Miltenberger. She ran for her old seat once again in the

1999 Northwest Territories general election The 1999 Northwest Territories general election was held on December 6, 1999. This was the first election under the new boundaries that were created when Nunavut was carved out of the Northwest Territories. 19 members were elected, five fewer than ...

but was defeated by Miltenberger again. She again ran against Miltenberger for a third time in the

2007 Northwest Territories general election The 2007 Northwest Territories general election took place on October 1, 2007. Nineteen members were elected to the Legislative Assembly from single member districts conducted under first-past-the-post voting system. The election was called on Se ...

. She finished last in a field of three candidates with 16.8% of the vote.

References

Living people Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Women MLAs in the Northwest Territories 1961 births People from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories Women legislative speakers 20th-century Canadian politicians 20th-century Canadian women politicians {{NorthwestTerritories-politician-stub