Your vote can make difference

Page 6

You have the right to vote on who will represent you in the Alberta Legislature when election day rolls around May 8.

That is an important right.

There are many "Windspeaker" readers who will remember a time when that right was denied Indians - and women, too, for that matter.

There are still millions of people in other countries who have no say whatever in choosing who will govern them, who will make the important decisions affecting their lives.

The democratic is vital to the preservation of individual freedom and choice. But it is a fragile thing, and it can be lost to us if we do not zealously guard its preservation by being active participants in it.

The Aboriginal people in this country have become increasingly involved in the democratic process - particularly in the past 20 years - and that involvement has paid them dividends.

Initially, Aboriginal access to Canadian democracy was dependent upon the support and good services of the non-Aboriginals in government - politicians and civil servants who acknowledged that the needs of the Aboriginal people were not being met, and who were willing to take action to ensure that those needs were met.

Gradually, Canada's Aboriginal leaders began to develop the skills and resources to negotiate directly with government themselves, and became increasingly successful in their efforts.

More recently Native people have began to accept the reality that the power to effect significant change is within the political system, and that the key to the political process is within the political parties. As a result, they have become directly involved in the process of selecting political leaders and the candidates who will run for office as representatives for those parties..

Native candidates have begun to seek elected office, also, and some have already been successful.

This kind of political involvement by Aboriginal people has had positive results, and has made the Aboriginal vote a significant influence in the Canadian democratic process.

But the final power is the election process, in how effectively each individual Aboriginal voter uses that democratic right of choosing a representative.

As important as each of us making sure we vote, is making sure that we vote acknowledgeably and responsibly.

These are critical times for Aboriginal people, and vital decisions affecting their future will be made by elected representative in both the provincial and federal governments.

Each of us owes it to ourselves, and to our community, and to our country, to learn about the issues in each election, to know who all of the candidates in our constituency are and what they stand for, to know the stand taken by the party each of those candidates represent.

Only if we have that kind of knowledge can we make a responsible and knowledgeable choice.

Then we have only one important act left...TO VOTE.