Sinclair quits politics: considers new career

After eight years in office, Sam Sinclair is calling it quits as president of the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA).

He announced his decision not to run in September's election last Friday, the final day which nomination papers could be filed for those seeking office in the up-coming elections.

"It was the toughest decision of my life because I like politics," said Sinclair, who spent a total of 12 years on the MAA executive, two of them as vice-president.

Sinclair cited the in-fighting of both staff and board members as a main reason for his departure. "That put the icing on the cake . . . I have no kind of time for that," he reported.

Sinclair has been involved in a number of pet projects. He was involved with the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) and as a board member of Indigenous Survival International, a world-wide support group chaired by Georges Erasmus and dedicated to the preservation of traditional hunting and trapping rights for Aboriginal people.

He looks upon those involvements with pride but conceded "one of the things I'm most proud of is to be involved in the constitutional First Ministers meetings."

Although the meetings failed to achieve the goals of Canada's Natives, Sinclair maintains "those doors are still open." He commends Natives for sticking together on the constitutional issues and exudes confidence that, "eventually they will settle that (issue)."

Other concerns and programs that have been addressed and that Sinclair is particularly enthusiastic about include:

- participation in negotiating for the $345 million economic development budget;

- securing funding for each of the MAA's six regions;

- the 300 homes under the Metis Urban Housing program;

- education improvements through Athabasca University and the Grouard sit-in for student housing to be built at Grouard; and

- progress within Northland School Division through the institution of local community school boards.

Much of the credit for the achievements belongs to the people, said Sinclair. It was the teamwork of the MAA board and the communities which undertook such programs that created them and made them the successes they are.

Mainstream politics is an area requiring a hard look in that several constituencies are predominated by Natives. "If everybody got out to vote we'd have a lot to say on the outcome," professed Sinclair.

He spoke of a new riding which is to be created in northern Alberta and may spark interest for himself. He has no particular party in mind at the moment and would like to visit Native communities to see if they might have any interest in supporting him if he were to run in an election.

Apart from the finances required to campaign, Sinclair was a bit critical of the fact that Aboriginal people do not go out and vote in numbers.

In projecting his own future, Sinclair is giving thought to a variety of possibilities in terms of work. The oil and timber industry interest him as does the potential of working with government again as he had prior to his election as MAA president in 1979.

Citing Red Earth as an example of what is occurring in the oil patch, Sinclair says he "sees only a small handful of Native people" involved. "When you have communities all around those oil activities, they're just bypassing our people. That hurts," he confessed.

Asked whether he has any thoughts of retirement, Sinclair said, "I'll never totally retire; I'll always be doing something even if it's trapping." He admits to not being a "good trapper" but that he could get by if he had to and that it is a life he considers viable.

For now, there are no thoughts of moving away from Edmonton for the 60 year old president. However, should a job opportunity arise that he thinks would interest him, he would move, especially if it happened to be in the Slave Lake region ? "the area I love," Sinclair concluded.