Rod Bruinooge

Rod E. Bruinooge (born May 6, 1973) is an Indigenous Canadian politician, businessman, and filmmaker.

Bruinooge became chief executive and president of Abject Modernity Internet Creations Ltd. in the late 1990s, and worked as a consultant.

Bruinooge has served as a director of the River View Health Centre and the Manitoba Children's Museum, and has done organizational work for the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival and the North American Indigenous Games.

He attended the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's 1993 leadership convention as a youth delegate, supporting Kim Campbell.

The game was strongly influenced by the Publius Enigma, a conceptual mystery involving hidden messages in the cover art of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell (1994).

Bruinooge developed an internet game/mystery entitled The Stone in 1995, and launched it as a consumer product in 1997.

The Stone was profiled by Forbes magazine in 1999 and has been featured in other international journals including USA Today and Entertainment weekly.

In February 1999, Bruinooge held a launch event at Time Square in New York City, where 999 copies of The Stone were handed out to guests.

Significant media coverage of the launch occurred including CNN and other New York based news stations.

He first sought the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination for Riel in 2002, but withdrew when it became clear that the nomination date would be in flux for some time.

In September 2004, Bruinooge and co-director Scott Jaworski released a film entitled Stoners, covering the activities of an internet gaming community that emerged around The Stone.

The film features several tracks from The Division Bell in its soundtrack, used with Pink Floyd's permission.

He later campaigned as the Conservative candidate for Winnipeg South in the 2004 federal election.

One of his more creative campaign advertisements was a self-directed, fifteen-second promotional film entitled "Big Tobacco", which compared Paul Martin's efforts at government renewal to misleading tobacco advertising.

The spot ran as a preview for Shrek 2 in some Winnipeg theatres.

Bruinooge was one of only three aboriginal candidates to run for the Conservative Party in the 2004 election.

The Conservative Party has sometimes been depicted as hostile to aboriginal interests, and at one point in the campaign Bruinooge and party leader Stephen Harper were the targets of a protest by aboriginal activists, including David Chartrand of the Manitoba Métis Federation.

Bruinooge finished second in the election against Liberal incumbent Reg Alcock.

Bruinooge started the Winnipeg International Film Festival in 2005, and was its executive director until February 2006.

The festival including a screening of Stoners during its first year.

Some in Winnipeg's arts community believed it was inappropriate for Bruinooge to screen his own film, although it was screened out of competition.

Bruinooge sought the Conservative nomination for Winnipeg South for a second time in the spring of 2005, but lost to rival candidate Hugh McFadyen by a narrow margin.

A few months later, he was defeated by McFadyen a second time in a contest for the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination in Fort Whyte.

Once again, McFadyen won by a very narrow margin.

McFadyen resigned his federal nomination when he chose to run provincially, and Bruinooge was chosen as the Conservative candidate in his place.

He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winnipeg South in the 2006 federal election, and was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians from 2006 until the fall of 2008.

Bruinooge is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, and is an Indigenous Canadian of Métis descent.

Bruinooge was a frequent candidate for public office before his election in 2006.

His candidacy was endorsed on January 18, 2006 by Vote Marriage Canada, a group which opposes same-sex marriage.

The Stone was completed in 2007 and Bruinooge was active in its final deployment.

He retired from parliament at the 2015 federal election.

Bruinooge became CEO of Eventride in May 2016.

Bruinooge was later appointed the first Indigenous Film Commissioner for Manitoba.

Bruinooge's father originated from Wemeldinge, Netherlands.

After moving to Canada, he married an Indigenous woman.

Bruinooge himself was born in Thompson, Manitoba, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Manitoba.

Rod Bruinooge is a member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists union, (ACTRA) since 2019.

Bruinooge was appointed Interim-CEO for the provincial crown agency Manitoba Film and Music in 2021 and became Canada's first Indigenous Film Commissioner at that time.

During his career as Film Commissioner Bruinooge led a delegation of film industry and government officials on a mission to Los Angeles on the maiden voyage of Winnipeg's first direct flight.

In 2020 Bruinooge appeared in an episode of CBC's Burden of Truth alongside Kristin Kreuk as a First Nation relative of recurring character Cody Chartrand (season 3, episode 4).