Leonard Stephen "Len" Marchand, PC CM OBC (November 16, 1933 – June 3, 2016^[1]) was a Canadian politician. He was the first person of First Nations ethnicity to serve in the federal cabinet, and was the first Status Indian to serve as a Member of Parliament.

Marchand was born in Vernon, British Columbia, as a member of the Okanagan Indian Band. An agronomist by training, he left his profession in the mid-1960s to work with the North American Indian Brotherhood. His work in native affairs took him to Ottawa to lobby on aboriginal issues, and he was hired as a special assistant to two successive Cabinet ministers.

He entered politics and was elected to the House of Commons in the 1968 election as a Liberal Party candidate for the British Columbia riding of Kamloops-Cariboo. He defeated high-profile Progressive Conservative candidate E. Davie Fulton.

He became parliamentary secretary to Jean Chrétien, who was the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and persuaded Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to begin land settlement negotiations between the federal government and the First Nations.

In 1976, Marchand was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of State for small business. In 1977, he was promoted to Minister of the Environment, and held the post until his and the government's defeat in the 1979 election.

Marchand returned to British Columbia where he became administrator for the Nicola Valley Indian Administration. In 1984, he was appointed to the Senate, the second Aboriginal Canadian to be appointed (the first was James Gladstone). Marchand persuaded the Upper House to establish the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, on which Marchand served as chairman.

He retired from the Senate in 1998 at the age of 64, eleven years ahead of the mandatory retirement age, in order to spend more time in British Columbia.

In 1999, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

In 2000, Caitlin Press published his autobiography, "Breaking Trail."

In 2014, Marchand received the Order of British Columbia.^[2]

Honours

Ribbon	Description	Notes
	Order of Canada (CM)	Member 1999
	Order of British Columbia (OBC)	Member 2014 [3]
	Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal	1977 Canadian Version of this Medal
	125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal	1992
	Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal	2002 Canadian Version of this Medal
	Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal	2012 Canadian version of this Medal

• Marchand was sworn in as a Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on 15 September 1976, giving him the accordant style "The Honourable" and the post-nominal ketters "PC" for life.
• In 1999, Marchand was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Thompson Rivers University.^[4]

References

External links

• Leonard Marchand: The first Status Indian elected to Canada's Parliament
• Leonard Marchand – Parliament of Canada biography
• Amazon.ca listing of "Breaking Trail.