Len Isleifson is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

provincial politician, who was elected as the Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...

for the riding of

Brandon East Brandon East is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It encompasses half of the City of Brandon, the other half being represented in Brandon West. Historical riding The original riding of Brandon East existed f ...

in the 2016 election. He is a member of the Progressive Conservative party, and defeated incumbent NDP MLA

Drew Caldwell Drew Caldwell (born April 10, 1960) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1999 until 2016, a cabinet minister in the government of Greg Selinger, and served in the cabinet of Gary Do ...

in the election. Isleifson made news wires outside of public office during the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

. When

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

qualified for the event, he decided to examine whether he was related to any national team members, seeing it as an opportunity to secure bragging rights among his friends. He told his father about his project, and they contacted Icelandic Roots, a company that specializes in Icelandic genealogy research, and discovered that they were related to 22 of the 23 players on the World Cup squad, as well as

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Heimir Hallgrímsson Heimir Hallgrímsson (born 10 June 1967) is an Icelandic former football player, dentist, and current manager of the Jamaica national football team. Career As a player Heimir started playing for ÍBV from his local town Vestmannaeyjar in 1986 ...

. Following the discovery, Isleifson attempted to set up a post-World Cup meeting with the team in Iceland, with the assistance of Iceland's consul general in Winnipeg.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isleifson, Len Living people Canadian people of Icelandic descent Politicians from Brandon, Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs 21st-century Canadian politicians Year of birth missing (living people)