Tina Keeper Politician

Tina Keeper, OM (born March 20, 1962), is a Cree activist, producer, former actress and former member of the Canadian House of Commons.Keeper is best known for her role as RCMP officer Michelle Kenidi in the CBC Television series North of 60, about the fictional aboriginal community of Lynx River. She also hosted a relief concert for the 1997 Manitoba flood. In 1993, she starred in the Canada Award-winning short docudrama For Angela, dramatizing Rhonda Gordon's response to racist taunting on a Winnipeg city bus.Keeper was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the granddaughter of Olympic long distance runner Joe Keeper and daughter of Joseph I. Keeper (Norway House Cree Nation), member of the Order of Canada and Rev. Dr. Phyllis Keeper (née Beardy, Muskrat Dam First Nation). Her siblings, Joy, Lorne and Barry are involved in the arts, media and education fields. Her maternal uncle is Anglican Bishop Gordon Beardy.Keeper is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation, and has been involved in a variety of social issues, such as suicide prevention and violence against women. She has produced initiatives in public education to build bridges between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the province of Manitoba.She was elected in 2006 Canadian election as the Liberal Party candidate in Churchill. Keeper served as the Official Opposition's Critic for Public Health and Canadian Heritage and as Special Advisor for Aboriginal Outreach in the parliament that followed.In the 2008 Canadian election she lost her bid for reelection. Currently, she is partner in a film and television company, Kistikan Pictures.