Hardy lists priorities

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Randy Hardy says he's "Going Home" after he finishes his job.

Before the election, moccasin telegraph speculation had it that Randy Hardy would take over the Presidency of the Alberta Federation of Metis Settlements Association (F.M.S.). He took it by acclamation.

Hardy is a people person.

When I went to see him in his office he didn't, in the fashion of other leaders, speak to me from across a big desk. Instead, we sat in the visitors chairs with a lounge table between us. Randy lit a smoke, and asked, "Do you speak Cree, Everett?" a question which sets Native people at ease when meeting people. Hardy has a way of quickly making friends with someone and making them feel comfortable.

Hardy is from the Kikino Metis Settlement near Lac La Biche, where he and his wife, along with their three children reside. In speaking with Randy, I quickly picked up on his homesickness. Hardy says he's here to do a job and he's "going home after he finishes." He also mentioned his distaste for some of the things about city life. Hardy

says he doesn't like the polluted city air, all the crowded living and "misses the wide open country side." Hardy plans to commute from Kikino during his 2 year term.

One would almost ask how does a simple country-loving man like Hardy become

a big city politician? "Well," says Randy, "six years ago, when I was 26, the people back home in Kikino asked me to run for council." They didn't like the state of affairs and wanted him to do something about it, so Randy ran and was elected. Immediately he

took on the chair position. (On the position.) Thus, being easily acclaimed to the F.M.S. Presidency is not an all together new feeling to the man who was raised on the Kikino Settlement.

The Metis Betterment Act, from which the Settlements were created, states that revenues flowing from subsurface and other resources would be placed in the Metis Betterment Trust Fund. To date these resources have generated millions of dollars which have not been deposited into the account. A settlement of the case is expected in the spring of 1987 near the time of the last First Ministers' Conference on Aboriginal Rights.

Hardy also elaborated on the constitutional position, also known as the "Made-in-Alberta Deal," would become part of the Canadian Constitution. In 1985, just before his departure, the then Alberta Premier, Peter Lougheed, presented Resolution 18 to the Legislative Assembly. This Resolution would ultimately secure a land base and a form of self-determination for the 4,500 Metis living on the eight settlements. As the Metis Betterment Act is a creator of the Alberta Act, this act would thus be amended. Further, the Alberta Act is part of the Canadian Constitution. Thus, an amendment to the Alberta Act would have to be passed by Parliament in Ottawa. The "Made-in-Alberta Deal," though it is not the approach other Aboriginal groups are taking, will constitutionalize a land base and self-determination for Alberta Metis. The Edmonton Journal reported that this route of constitutionalization could be a trendsetter for other Metis groups across Western Canada also seeking a land base and self-determination. This type of legislation would make it impossible for a provincial Order-in-council to wipe out a Metis Settlement, as happened to some Settlements in the early days of the Betterment Act (1939). The present day settlements are at Paddle River (Keg River,) Big Prairie, East Prairie, Gift Lake (Peavine,) Kikino, Caslan (Buffalo Lake,) Elizabeth and Fishing Lake.

In response to the M.A.A.'s recent charge that the F.M.S.'s position on land could jeopardize constitutional negotiations for other Alberta Metis (the non-settlements Metis) Hardy believes that the two positions are 'parallel.' He also reminded me that, indeed, the M.A.A. was born out of a need for the present recognized Metis Settlements.

It will prove interesting to evaluate this man's accomplishments after he completes his mandate. For onething, Hardy is a store-house of Metis political knowledge. I remember him saying "I didn't just pop up out of the blue you know." And indeed. Hardy has no trouble demonstrating his knowledge of the area.