Mike Cardinal was born into a family of 13 in 1941 in northern Alberta, the son of a trapper and a homemaker. He dropped out of school in grade 8 to work, but eventually returned to school and graduated from grade 12. He spent ten years in the forestry and sawmill industries before entering the public sector. He worked as a mortgage officer with the Alberta Housing Corporation before transferring to the Alberta Human Resources Development Authority. There he developed a native housing/relocation program before moving to the department of Advanced Education and Manpower, where he served as regional supervisor of Employment/Counselling Services for ten years. He served a further three years as a regional manager of Employment and Relocation Counselling Services, and three more as a senior consultant to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Manpower.
Municipal politics
Cardinal served as a town councillor in Slave Lake and on the school board of the Northland School Division No. 61, where he chaired the board for three of his six years of service.
Provincial politics
Electoral record
Cardinal first sought provincial office in the 1989 election, when ran as a Progressive Conservative against incumbent New DemocratLeo Piquette in the riding of Athabasca-Lac La Biche. He defeated Piquette by more than 900 votes. When electoral boundaries were re-drawn in advance of the 1993 election, Cardinal ran in the new riding of Athabasca-Wabasca. He was elected here not only in 1993, but also in 1997 and 2001, taking well over fifty percent of the vote each time. In 2004 this riding too was abolished, and Cardinal served his last term as the member for Athabasca-Redwater, which he won handily in the 2004 election. He did not seek re-election at the conclusion of this term.
Backbencher
Cardinal served as a backbencher from the time of his election until Ralph Klein became premier in December 1992. During this time, he sponsored the Metis Settlements Land Protection Act of 1990, a government bill designed to give Metis settlements ownership over the land. It passed without significant controversy, though LiberalNicholas Taylor questioned a portion of the bill that stipulated that the land, as it was communally owned, could not be mortgaged.
Upon Ralph Klein's ascendancy to the Premiership in December 1992, Cardinal was brought into cabinet as the Minister of Family and Social Services. He was the first treaty Indian to be named to Alberta's cabinet, and, in addition to his portfolio, was given cabinet responsibility for aboriginal issues.
