Len Isleifson is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

provincial politician, who was elected as the Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at List of Manitoba genera ...

for the riding of

Brandon East Brandon East () is a provincial electoral division in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Manitoba, Canada. It encompasses the southeastern part of the City of Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon. Historical riding The original riding o ...

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 for the constituency of Brandon East from 1999 until 2016, serving as a Cabinet of Manitoba, Cabinet Minister in t ...

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 national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. When

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

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 organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Heimir Hallgrímsson Heimir Hallgrímsson (born 10 June 1967) is an Icelandic professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Republic of Ireland men's national team. Early life Heimir was born on 10 June 1967, and grew up in a ...

. 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 members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba Year of birth missing (living people)