The suit and House of Commons chair used by a former Member of Parliament from Steinbach are now displayed in the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum.

Jake Epp says there was an opportunity to buy the chair he used in the House of Commons and so he did and donated it to the museum.

"When I got to the House of Commons they were all in green leather, but we wore them out and, as you notice, it is now in cloth. So, you could buy the chair that you would use, which I did, and then donated it to the museum."

Epp notes when he and his wife moved to Calgary in 1993 there were clothes he didn't wear anymore, including a suit he had worn in Parliament, which was donated to the local thrift store.

"So, Lydia packed it all up and made sure it was clean, as was her habit, and donated it to a thrift store. Unbeknownst to us, they found out whose they were and by some mysterious ways the museum found out about it and here they are."

He adds he heard there was a note found in the garment bag of the suit.

"As a minister, you moved around a lot, traveled a lot and you had staff. I wouldn't be surprised if some staff member put the note in and said, 'hey, get these to the minister because he's going to be somewhere and he's going to need this garment bag.' One garment bag, I had an office in Winnipeg as well, I found it under a car in a parking lot. They do land up in strange places."

Epp says one of his favourite memories as a minister was when we met Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Philip during their visit to Manitoba.

"We (Epp and his wife) were with them the entire day and at the end of the day she invited us to her suite, it was then called Weston, now it's the Fairmont in Winnipeg. She and Philip were very informal. She gave us an autographed, framed picture of both the prince and the queen. That's a happy memory."

He adds he has lots of books and a number of artifacts which may end up at the museum one day as well.