Native issues make brief an belated appearance on campaign trail

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Native issues finally made an appearance, albeit a brief one, on the national campaign trail this month.

Liberal leader Jean Chretien pledged a national pre-school program for Aboriginal children during a brief speech a Wanuskewin Park near Saskatoon Oct. 8.

"A Liberal government is committed to building a new partnership with Aboriginal people based on trust and mutual respect," he said. "We will provide Aboriginal people with the tools to become self-sufficient and self-governing."

Chretien also said Native self-government was recognizable without any constitutional reform.

"It is not necessary to put it in the Constitution. Let's do the right thing right now."

New Democrat leader Audrey McLaughlin also spoke on Native issues at a stop-over in Timmins, Ont. Canada should build hundreds of northern substance abuse treatment centres to address the rising incidence of alcoholism and gasoline sniffing among Native youth, McLaughlin told a crowd of 90 NDP supporters at the health care forum.

The sudden eruption in discussions of Native concerns as an election issue came only days after Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi said the federal leaders were ignoring Aboriginal issues at their peril.

The party that wins the federal election will have to deal with Natives across Canada, he said, whether they want to or not.

Natives must listen to whatever the federal political parties are saying now because none of the parties' platforms are working in their favor, said Saul Terry, the head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

Former Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon had said Ottawa was unwilling to talk to Natives about land rights or any other Aboriginal issues because "you Natives supposedly turned down the Charlottetown Accord," Terry said.

"So now they're politically trying to punish us. The Conservatives have indicated where they are coming from and that's totally unacceptable.

"The NDP have indicated that they are willing to acknowledge or respect the rights of our people, although I don't know about the Aboriginal titles question. The liberals, as I understand, have a platform. It sounds like they're the only ones who've pulled something together in terms of a platform," Terry said.

The Bloc Quebecois are too busy thinking about the sovereignty of Quebec to consider Native sovereignty and Preston Manning wants Natives molded to the Reform party's vision, said Terry, who does not expect many Indians to vote Oct. 25.

If the Native vote is 20 or 25 per cent, Elections Canada would have a pretty good turn-out, he said.

But no one from Kahnawake will vote.

All governments have an influence on Natives, said Kahnawake council member Bill Two Rivers.

"Government policy with Indians doesn't change with the government. The position of Canada stays the same. We don't vote because it does not make a damn bit of difference."