Liberals continue to pledge to “close the gap”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde calls Justin Trudeau’s overwhelming federal election victory a “total surprise. I think people must have made the decision that they wanted to bring about change but the best party to bring about that change was the Liberals.”

Cameron Alexis was one of those casualties in what has now become known as “orange crush to orange crash.”

Alexis, NDP candidate in Peace River-Westlock, had initially been courted by the Liberal party. The timing was off when he was approached by the Liberals, Alexis says, and he had a firm belief in the NDP platform and respect for leader Tom Mulcair and predecessor Jack Layton. But with Alberta going Tory blue in all but five ridings, political stripe wouldn’t have made a difference.

Alexis said he wasn’t “overly disappointed” with the NDP’s poor showing. The party dropped from 103 seats to 44.

“People spoke and we have to accept that,” he said. “I’m very thankful the people have removed Mr. Harper.”

The NDP fielded the most Indigenous candidates with 22, six of whom were in Alberta. Alexis had the best showing at a distant second to the Conservative winner Arnold Viersen. The other five placed distant thirds, with Conservatives taking all those seats as well. The one Liberal Indigenous candidate, Garry Parenteau, placed second in the riding of Lakeland, which also went Conservative. The Green Party’s Ralph McLean finished fourth in the riding of Edmonton-Millwoods, which was won by Liberal Armajeet Sohi in a tight race. Edmonton-Centre also went Liberal while NDP Linda Duncan maintained her Edmonton-Strathcona seat. The Calgary ridings of Centre and Skyview were won by Liberals.

Bellegarde is comfortable working with Trudeau and doesn’t see the Liberal’s win as a loss to First Nations despite the strength in the NDP’s Indigenous platform and the fact that Mulcair was the only leader to attend the AFN’s open forum in Enoch Cree Nation. The Liberals sent Dr. Carolyn Bennett, the party’s Aboriginal affairs critic.

“I think on the surface the party platforms are really comparable,” said Bellegarde. “(The Liberals) have a very robust plan in terms of responding to closing the gap. In fact the Prime Minister referred to that in his comments everywhere that he was going to work with Indigenous people to close the gap.”

Alexis, who is a former AFN Alberta Regional Chief and former Chief of the Alexis Sioux Nakota Nation,  says he hopes the Liberals start to look at the omnibus bills and the Fair Elections Act and start to make some changes.

“The legislation and the court rulings we have won over the years and Mr. Harper, all he did was held it at bay, and now that’s unfinished business, so it’s going to be quite interesting to see how the Liberals move ahead on that,” said Alexis.

In his post-election comments, Trudeau spoke about respecting recent Supreme Court decisions.

“Which I can infer (from that) makes reference to the Williams case, the Tsilhqot’in case, which is a first time again that Aboriginal right and title were recognized and affirmed. Those are very strong statements,” said Bellegarde.

Parenteau says the Liberal win will result in “meaningful discussions” of issues, the elevation of the platform for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, more respect for First Nations treaties, and a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women.

“There will be discussions for the Metis on what Metis rights are,” said Parenteau, who is Metis. “I think this is very positive for Indigenous people of Canada. And rightfully so. We’ve taken the back seat for too long.”

There are two issues that will make it clear fairly soon whether or not the Trudeau government is delivering on its promises, says Bellegarde.

The first is convening a national inquiry on murdered and missing women. The second will come in the delivery of the federal budget on April 1.

“Removal of the two per cent funding cap. That will be a major, major movement in terms of closing the gap and holding their feet to the fire,” said Bellegarde, who notes he and Trudeau are working on a date to meet shortly.

While poll statistics have yet to be broken down, Bellegarde is confident that First Nations eclipsed the 44 per cent voter turnout on reserves from 2011. He says he knows of Chiefs who shut down band offices in order to bus voters to the polls. Across the country, including Siksika First Nation, a handful of First Nations ran out of ballots because the turnout was higher than Elections Canada had anticipated.

This election saw a record number of Indigenous candidates at 54. The Liberal party ran 18. Ten Indigenous MPs were elected which set a record.

With eight of the 10 Indigenous MPs as members of the Liberal government, Bellegarde is hopeful they “can influence change from inside.” He also would like to see an Indigenous MP serve in Cabinet, pointing to former AFN BC Regional Chief and lawyer Jody Wilson-Raybould, who won in the riding of Vancouver Granville, as an appropriate fit for Trudeau’s smaller, gender-equal Cabinet. 

The AFN had also targeted 51 ridings in which the Indigenous vote could make a difference. Of those ridings, the Conservatives lost 12 seats and the Liberals went up by 24. Once more, no numbers are available to determine if Indigenous voters made those changes possible.

In Alberta, the AFN singled out the riding of Edmonton-Griesbach. A battle waged between the NDP and Conservative candidates with the Conservatives coming out on top. Bellegarde wouldn’t say if Indigenous vote having an impact meant Conservatives losing.

“We were there to mobilize the vote. We weren’t there to jump on any particular party but we wanted our people to make an informed choice,” he said.

Alexis questions the wisdom of Alberta voters in “remaining hard core blue.”

To the Conservative MPs he says, “Good luck. You don’t have a leader anymore so they have to speak for themselves.”

Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative leader on Election night, directing the party executive to appoint an interim leader.