Liberal win opens doors for Indigenous issues

Lakeland Liberal candidate Garry Parenteau jokingly said before the election that his party was “going for” a majority government. Never did he think the red wave would be so strong.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals began its sweep in the Atlantic, carried through to Quebec and Ontario to the northern territories and then got a smattering of seats throughout the prairies before ending with a strong showing in British Columbia.
In total, the Liberals captured 184 seats, an increase of 150 from the 2011 election.

Parenteau, the only Aboriginal Liberal candidate in Alberta, placed a distant second in his riding. But then again, only five of the province’s 34 seats did not stay Conservative. Alberta contributed to almost one-third of the Conservatives’ 99-seat Official Opposition status.

Parenteau blames Alberta’s decision to stay Tory blue on the “inaction of the orange (provincial NDP) in the province over the last few months.”

Across the country, the Liberals fielded 18 Indigenous candidates, eight of whom were elected.

The Liberal win is big for Indigenous peoples, says Parenteau.

“Finally, we won’t be stepped on. We will have our door open for us. We will be going into meaningful discussion with the federal government,” he said.

In an analysis done of party platforms and responses to the Assembly of First Nations’ Closing the Gap report, which looked at election priorities for First Nations, the Liberals had a strong response. But it wasn’t as good as the response from the New Democratic Party.

“I felt very strong as an Indigenous person, 22 people ran for (Mulcair) because we believed in his platform. Not only from an Indigenous point of view, but for all of Canadians,” said Cameron Alexis, who ran for the NDP in Peace River-Westlock and finished a distant second to the Conservative candidate. Alexis points to the fact that NDP leader Tom Mulcair was the only party head to attend the AFN’s open forum, which was held in Enoch Cree Nation. The Liberals sent their Aboriginal Affairs critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, while the Conservatives had no representative although Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
in Edmonton the same day.

The NDP saw their seats knocked down to 44 from 103. Only two Indigenous candidates for the party were elected, including incumbent Romeo Saganash, who barely held on
to his Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou seat. In Alberta, there were six NDP Indigenous candidates. Alexis’ placement was the best, with the other candidates finishing third in their respective ridings.

Mulcair will not be stepping down as NDP leader unlike Harper, who announced he would maintain his Calgary Heritage seat but not the party leadership.

Alexis says he respects Mulcair and Mulcair’s decision.

While Alexis won’t speculate on how a Liberal government will address Indigenous issues, he is pleased with the change in the country.

“I’m very thankful the people have removed Mr. Harper,” he said. “Democracy has spoken in that sense.”

Alexis says it will be “interesting” to see how the Liberals move forward.

Parenteau expects the Liberal government to take action on numerous Indigenous issues during this term of office. Some issues will be moved on quickly, he says, like a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women, while others, like First Nations and Metis rights, will take time for negotiation and discussion.

While none of Alberta’s Indigenous candidates were successful in getting seats, Parenteau says candidates were successful in other ways.

“By putting their name forward and making themselves available … they raised the bar on Indigenous issues that was not there before (and) therefore, everything was a win,” he said.

“I think we got the young people engaged and I feel very, very good about that,” said Alexis.

Also running for the NDP were Melody Lepine (Fort McMurray-Cold Lake), Aaron Paquette (Edmonton Manning), Fritz Bitz (Edmonton-Wetaskiwin), Duane Zaraska (Lakeland) and Katherine Swampy (Battle River-Crowfoot). The Green Party had one Aboriginal candidate, Ralph McLean, who placed fourth in Edmonton-Millwoods.

“The Indigenous people of Canada have come out winners as of last night,” said Parenteau.