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Is there a First Nations vote?

Ask John Beaucage, Grand Council Chief of the Union of Ontario Indians, which party First Nations people tend to support, and he says, “It’s dangerous to start talking about stereotypical behavior.” One of his biggest concerns is that people in First Nations communities are not voting at all.

Sometimes only 100 people out of 800 potential voters get to the polls, he says. “Some would rather not vote for provincial or federal governments at all.” That’s because they don’t believe they’re voting for their government and prefer to focus on band council or tribal council elections instead. But that doesn’t stop First Nations from lining up at the door of the new Minister of Indian Affairs or at committee hearings to talk about issues on the legislative floor, he says.

Beaucage thinks First Nations people need to get involved sooner. Hence, the Union of Ontario Chiefs is taking part in an initiative similar to the Assembly of First Nations, “Vote 08, Change Can’t Wait” campaign. They want more Aboriginal people to exercise their right to vote no matter which way it is.

According to the AFN’s Election Handbook, Aboriginal voter turnout increased by eight per cent in the last election. With 24 federal ridings showing aboriginal populations higher than ten per cent of the general population, the AFN says First Nations people can have a major influence on who wins the seat next.

Getting more First Nations to run would be a huge help, says Beaucage. “Regardless of what party they run for, they would garner a lot of the vote, because they’d be campaigning in First Nations communities.”

This election 30 Aboriginal candidates are running for seats in five parties across the country. The NDP has the longest slate with 11 candidates in ridings from Nunavut to Churchill River Saskatchewan, Red Deer, Alberta and Guelph, Ontario where funny man and author Tom King is on the ballot. The Liberals have eight running in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Labrador and Manitoba, where former “North of 60” television star Tina Keeper is trying to keep her Churchill seat. The Green Party has three candidates, as does the Conservative Party and the newly-minted First Peoples National Party has a five-person slate with choices in Calgary, Fort McMurray, Prince George, Sault Ste. Marie and Kapuskasing.

In 2004, 27 Aboriginal candidates ran but only six were successful, meaning that Aboriginal people, who make up three per cent of the national population, held less than two per cent of the seats in the House of Commons.

According to the Parliament of Canada website , only 26 First Nations, Inuit or Metis candidates have been elected since 1871, including Canada’s first status Indian elected to the House of Parliament, Lenny Marchand. Marchand won the seat as a Liberal member in Kamloops-Cariboo in 1968 only eight years after Aboriginal people were allowed to vote in federal elections. Including Marchand, 12 of these MPs were Liberals, eight Conservative, four NDP, one Bloc Quebecois and one Independent (Louis Riel in 1873).

Heather Ramsay is a Tyee contributing editor based in Queen Charlotte City.


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