Only Aboriginal candidate in election will continue fight

The day after the municipal elections, Edmonton’s only Aboriginal candidate was tired and disappointed.

“The electorate are really having a difficult time with who they voted in (previously but) . . . they’re going with what they know,” said Duane Good Striker, who placed a distant fifth on a slate of five candidates in Ward 8. Incumbent Ben Henderson was returned by a margin of almost two to one over his closest competitor.

“That’s democracy,” said Good Striker. “The voters aren’t ready for any kind of real change.”

Good Striker had hoped that two campaigns as candidate for the federal NDP would help him in his municipal challenge. He’d also held out optimism by the high numbers who turned out at advanced polling and the high numbers of phone calls he fielded for issues that were non-Aboriginal.

Good Striker’s campaign headquarters were located on an empty lot north of the Rossdale Power Plant in a brightly coloured teepee. The ward he was running in was just south of that location and spanned from the university to the Capilano/Gold Bar area. It didn’t have a large Aboriginal population, said Good Striker, who has lived in the city for 22 years and is from the Blood First Nation, in southern Alberta.

Good Striker established his headquarters in that location to highlight his concerns and campaign issue of the Rossdale location of the 2017 Edmonton Expo bid. He was an opponent to the city’s power plant expansion, noting that bodies of First Nations people were dug up when the plant went in. The site along the North Saskatchewan river was a traditional Blood Indian campground.

“I’ve had interaction with council. For 11 years I stopped the expansion of this power plant,” he said.
Good Striker supports the 2017 Expo, holding that energy companies should pay to build the Expo site.
“But this site has to be developed very, very carefully so nothing else is disturbed here and it’s honoured and respected properly once and for all,” said Good Striker. He noted he will continue to be involved in the 2017 Expo process.

Good Striker said it is important for there to be an Aboriginal voice on council. Edmonton has the second largest urban Aboriginal population in the country. The only Aboriginal person to serve on council was Inuit David C. Ward from 1968-1974.

Good Striker doesn’t believe the Declaration Strengthening Relationships Between the City of Edmonton and Urban Aboriginal People signed five years ago is enough.

“It means absolutely nothing,” he said. “If you read it, it says the city basically wants to help the Indians but the Indians must answer to the city on direction. So it’s not self-determined. It’s a city entity.”

He noted that not only are Aboriginals not being given voice at the municipal level but they are also silent at the provincial and federal levels.

Three years ago, Lewis Cardinal, who hails from Sucker Creek First Nation and who is now a federal NDP candidate for Edmonton Centre, also ran in Ward 8. He lost a close contest to Henderson. In the 2010 elections, Henderson garnered 9,051 votes and Good Striker 748 votes.

Good Striker said he will be back to run again in three years.