Unsuccessful Indigenous election candidates call for more support from urban First Nations people

A number of Indigenous candidates who ran unsuccessfully in Vancouver’s recent municipal elections say more support and higher voter turnout from the urban First Nations population is needed to help get more Indigenous politicians into elected office.

“Indigenous people are at the forefront of a lot of the crises in Vancouver, whether that’s housing, homelessness, poison drugs or the climate crisis,” said Matthew Norris, who ran as a Vancouver council candidate with OneCity.

Norris, who is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and president of the Urban Native Youth Association, said there wasn’t enough attention paid to Indigenous voters from other political parties and media during the provincewide municipal elections.

He fell short by more than 7,000 votes.

“We were missing Indigenous voices in this city during the last year … so that was my incentive to put my name forward to bring that perspective and experience into the dialogue,” he said.

“We’ve seen a lack of attention to Indigenous rights … and those concerns aren’t going to go away.”

‘Big hurdle’

Chris Livingstone, a Nisga’a member who ran as a candidate for the Vancouver Park Board with COPE, says many Indigenous people feel skeptical about voting.

“The way that I used to feel when I was younger was that a vote for anybody is a vote for your killer or a person that’s trying to hold you down … so that’s a big hurdle,” Livingstone told CBC News.

“Within the historical context, we’ve looked at institutions …  and most of these social systems as being bent on destroying us.”

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Matthew Norris of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band ran for city council in Vancouver. Though he wasn’t elected, he says it’s important to keep pushing for Indigenous perspectives to be heard at city hall.

Andrea Reimer, a former Vancouver city councillor with Metis and Cree ancestry, says improving Indigenous representation has to start at the party level.

“I think we have to make it clear that you are not a serious party if you are not running Indigenous people,” said Reimer.

She also called for support from communities and media.

“I think we as an Indigenous community need to stand up and support those people. We need media to show us stories about Indigenous people who are leaders and we need to keep doing the hard work.”

Success on school boards

Indigenous candidates weren’t completely shut out in local government elections. In Fort Nelson, Leslie Dickie of the Kawkutl First Nation was elected to council in the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Garrett Milsap, who identifies as Metis, was elected to council in West Kelowna.

And for the first time in its 130-year history, the city of Burnaby will have an Indigenous politician serving in elected office after Mikelle Saskamoose won a seat on the Burnaby school board.

Saskamoose, who is Sylix, Cree and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, said her family history, which includes relatives who were taken to residential school and her childhood in a reserve outside of Kamloops, was a part of her decision to run for school board.

“My dad went to day school. My grandpa went to residential school, and I know my aunts, uncles and cousins went to residential school.”

She said as a mother with two daughters at a public school in Burnaby, she worried about their experience at school as Indigenous students and wanted to run for elected office to “fight systemic racism.”

“I think the people in Burnaby overwhelming demonstrated through their votes that they support diversity, equity and inclusion and together we made history.”

Elsewhere, Erica McLean topped the polls in the race for school board in Prince George.

McLean, a former Indigenous education worker who identifies at Gitxsan and Tsimshian, said she feels a “great deal of responsibility” entering her new job.

She resigned from her position with the school district last year after a provincial report found “clearly discriminatory and systemically racist” practices within the city’s schools.

McLean said one of her top priorities would be creating a more inclusive environment.

“Having grown up on the rez… [I have] a different perspective,” she said. “My goal is to really dive deep into those conversations.”