Exciting political activity predicted

Page 6

The results of the May 8 Alberta provincial election are certain to make politics in this province much livelier.

For a start, the gains by the New Democrats and the Liberals - at the expense

of the Progressive Conservatives - provide a great deal of meat for both amateur and professional political analysts to chew on.

There is also an opportunity to speculate on who will replace ousted cabinet ministers and how those changes will affect government policies.

In the long term, there is the chance to try to forecast the role the increased Opposition will play in future Legislature debates, and how that will affect government policies and programs.

There will be those who will blame the Tory losses on the record low turnout of

50 per cent of eligible voters to the polls. Others will attribute the losses to economic conditions - high unemployment and the severe problems being faced by farmers and the oil industry. And still others will say - as has been said by Tory opponents throughout the campaign - that the losses were a result of government arrogance and inaccessibility resulting from its massive majority.

For Native people, one of the first concerns will be who is appointed to replace Native Affairs Minister Milt Pahl, who was defeated in Edmonton-Millwoods.

Metis Association of Alberta President Sam Sinclair had called for Pahl's removal from the position even before the election was called, and Chief Bernard Ominayak and his Lubicon Lake Indian Band have been at loggerheads for some time.

Sinclair has accused the provincial government of stalling on MAA requests for funding and of stonewalling in negotiations regarding Aboriginal rights and the Canadian Constitution.

Ominayak has refused to negotiate with the federal government on his Band's land claims if the Alberta government is represented because of the way Alberta has handled the issue.

Those are only two high profile issues among other many others of concern to Alberta's Native people ranging from self-government and land claims to day-to-day problems such as training and employment, economic development, education, housing, health care and social services.

Native leaders cannot help but hope that the decreased Tory majority will make them more wiling to listen and respond to Native concerns, and that the increase in the size of the Opposition will provide a more effective alternative route through which they can have their concerns aired.

The days ahead should be interesting ones indeed.