Election promises status quo for Aboriginal Albertans

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The provincial election had hardly been called a few weeks ago when experts were predicting a landslide win for Premier Ralph Klein and his Progressive Conservative "team". The likely outcome- all but a handful of seats going to incumbent Tories- means that it will be four years of more of the same for Aboriginal Albertans.

"The Conservative position on Aboriginal issues is one that the government has been following for the last 20 years," said Robert Jordan, a spokesman for the Pc's in Edmonton. "It only stands to reason that our position would be the one the that the government ha been following while we've been in power."

Progressive Conservative Aboriginal policies are to allow the federal government to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities to Alberta's First Nations, while interceding when asked to by Alberta's treaty population. The Tory government will be more active with the Metis settlements and the off-reserve populations, but the party considers Native issues to be largely a federal responsibility and other items to be social rather than political issues.

The Tories have governed Alberta since Peter Lougheed wrested power from the Social Credit government of Harry Strom in 1971. Going into this year's March 11 vote, Klein's popularity- or the lack of palatable alternative- has the PCs at well over 60 percent of the popular vote. Those numbers should ensure that the opposition can ride to the Legislature in the same cab.

"We're hoping to form the opposition, and get enough seats to qualify for an official party status," said Ken Way from Edmonton, deputy leader for the Social Credit party. "It would be ridiculous to expect to do better than that, but we have hopes in a number of ridings in central and southern Alberta.

Four seats qualify a party for official status under Alberta's elections act.

The Socred's position on Aboriginal issues is a simple one: get land claims solved and then treat Native people like everybody else. Way said that the biggest thing standing in the way of Native prosperity is dependence upon government.

"I don't see any barriers by race in Alberta," he said, and then added, "under a Social Credit government We need to get the government out of Native people's lives. We need to let them run their own lives. If they have the government out of their lives, they'll get ahead.

"What we would do is institute a provincial commission to deal with the specific claims," he continues. "We support the concept of Aboriginal people being equal and important members of society."

Social Credit is likely to be the only opposition party to make any gains in this election, and they're unlikely to be earthshaking. It is widely expected that the New Democrats will spin their wheels and finish with no seats for the second term in a row, while the Liberals will crash from 31 seats to two or three.

"We have made a commitment within our caucus to do as much as we can [for Aboriginal people], given the limitations of the provincial position," said Liberal Aboriginal Affairs critic Ken Nicol from Lethbridge. "I don't think [the Tories] have been quite as aggressive as they could have been supporting Aboriginal people in their negotiations with the federal government. "

Nicol said that the Liberals were, however, not generally opposed to the PC's Aboriginal policies, and singled out their economic development strategy as "a really good program."

The Liberals' 11 page Aboriginal policy states: " We will work in a cooperative spirit to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples."

The New Democrats agree, and would go much farther. Their two-page Aboriginal position paper is a much more activist document, if rather lacking in detail.

"We support the inherent right to self government at a pace to be determined by the communities," explained Stephen Crocker, who is running in Edmonton Millwood's. "In disputed areas, we want a moratorium on elopment until the land claim is resolved.

Crocker said that a New Democratic government would commit to seeing that, while First Nations would be fully served properly by the federal government, "urban First Nations and Metis people should have complete access to fully funded education, employment and social services."

He also said that such services, including job-creation strategies, should be directed and operated by and in the communities themselves.

"What Aboriginal self government is about is empowerment, about providing resources to the communities to deal with this less effectively," Crocker said.

"The provincial governmental-ways uses the excuse 'that's federal jurisdiction.' They're also Albertans too. We need to begin to implement programs to help their communities."

Crocker said that the record of the government is generall

y a reflection of the attitude of the premier, and there has been a swing since Klein took over from former premier Don Getty. He cited the Lubicon negotiations as an example.

"Basically, the two levels of government have played good guy, bad guy. Now the roles are reversed. The poor Lubicons are stuck in the middle and nothing is proceeding."

Few experts expect that the 1997 election to change much. If anything, the Tories will be even more firmly entrenched than they have been for the last four years.