George Hickes (Manitoba politician)

George Hickes (born 26 June 1946) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He has served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1990 until 2011, and was the Speaker of the Assembly from November 1999 to October 2011. He is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Hickes is the father of Nunavut politician George Hickes, Jr., and the uncle of Nunavut politician Hunter Tootoo and hockey player Jordin Tootoo.

Hickes was born to an Inuit family near Ports Point in the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), and was raised in Churchill, Manitoba. His early years alternated between traditional Inuit life and modern Canadian society. He caught beluga whales in his youth (a long-standing tradition in Inuit culture), and earned the nickname "coldwater cowboy" for working without the aid of nets. The descendants of whales caught by Hickes can still be seen in several aquariums throughout the world.

Hickes worked as a heavy equipment operator at the Tar Sands Project in Fort McMurray, Alberta in the early 1970s, and held a variety of jobs in Churchill during the same period. He joined Manitoba's New Careers program in 1976, and later acknowledged that this decision saved him from a life of poverty. After graduating in 1978, Hickes became a trainer and coordinator for New Careers in Winnipeg until 1984. He later worked as executive director of the Limestone Training and Employment Agency near Gillam, Manitoba, and assisted in designing an education program for the Yukon.

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