Voting needed to bring about change in Canada

Indigenous candidates in Alberta are excited – and hopeful – about getting out the Aboriginal vote.

For First Nations people, in particular, voting has long been a contentious issue.

“There is still a division of opinion on that in the sense that there are some people who say this is not our government so we have no business participating in it or voting in a federal election. And others who say this is really the way we can make change, to go into the arena and participate directly in that
particular arena, to try and promote change,” said Chief Wilton Littlechild, who served as MP for the Westaskiwin riding from 1988-1993. He was the first treaty Indian to hold a seat in Canada and the only Aboriginal MP in Alberta’s history.

Cameron Alexis, who is running for the New Democratic Party in Peace River-Westlock, says Aboriginal people need an elected voice in Ottawa.

“In the past 10 years Mr. Harper, by introducing numerous bills in the House, has whittled away at our treaty rights. At some point we all have to stand up and say, ‘Hey, we either participate in the decision-making in this country, be allowed to debate in the House of Commons on the issues that adversely affect us, or we sit back,” he said.

Aaron Paquette, NDP candidate in Edmonton-Manning, holds that Aboriginal people are more politically involved than many believe.

“Everyone’s aware of what the issues are, I think at this time …. Over a decade of Stephen Harper sort of basically not being … a friend to Indigenous people in Canada and Indigenous people know that and they see their lives affected by it directly and they see their lives affected socially,” he said.

Local candidates – six with the NDP and one with the Liberals – feel as if they are making inroads, both in promoting themselves as viable candidates and in promoting the Indigenous vote.

“A lot of the doors I knocked on in both the Ermineskin and Louis Bull, and Paul Band, were people who hadn’t voted in their entire life and they were well in their 60s or older and this was something they had never participated in and they wanted to participate because they had seen a First Nations person
participate and it inspired them to participate,” said Katherine Swampy, who is running under the NDP banner in Battle River-Crowfoot.

Fritz Bitz, NDP candidate in Edmonton-Wetaskiwin, has been campaigning since June. She also helped the provincial NDP candidate in the May election and the message is the same: people want change because they don’t feel they are being heard by the governing party. Bitz sees the NDP’s provincial sweep in Alberta and the Idle No More movement as having convinced local voters – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – that they can make a difference.

“I think that they felt a sense of ability to have a voice. And so I’m hearing enthusiastic people here now whereas before it was always kind of muted distant hope kind of thing and now there’s more enthusiasm, more actual belief in possibility,” said Bitz.

But getting the Aboriginal vote out isn’t all about philosophy. It also has to do with logistics.

The new Federal Elections Act requires two pieces of identification, which includes one with an address. For many First Nations people living both on and off-reserve that is a problem. However, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Maynard recently announced that special form letters could be downloaded and then signed by a band administrator to confirm an individual is a band resident.

For those who are homeless and living in urban centres, a letter of confirmation from a soup kitchen or shelter is acceptable.

“I’m working with homeless shelters on how they can encourage people to vote, who may feel that their vote doesn’t really matter because of some of the requirements that they have to get through just to vote,” said Melody Lepine, NDP candidate in Fort McMurray-Cold Lake. “I’m doing whatever I can.”

Lakeland is the only riding in which two Indigenous candidates are facing off.  Garry Parenteau, the lone Liberal, and NDP candidate Duane Zaraska have both been unyielding in their push to have polling stations on all the reserves in their riding. There are already polling stations on the Metis settlements.

Along with identification issues there is also the issue of transportation as many Aboriginal voters do not have access to either private or public transportation.

But in the end, says Bitz, it will come down to one thing:  “Aboriginal people talking to Aboriginal people, that’s how the word is going to get out.”