Indigenous Candidates - 2015 Federal Election

54 Indigenous Candidates captured almost 1/2 million (473,255) votes in the 2015 Federal Election. 

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Indigenous Candidates for 2015 Federal Election

On this page we will keep track of First Nation, Metis and Inuit people who have been nominated or are seeking nomination for the four major federal parties: Conservative Party of Canada, New Democratic Party, Liberal Party of Canada, Green Party of Canada.

We will rely on sources from news, political parties, bios of candidates, political bloggers, Aboriginal media and other reliable sources. Please contact us if you have information on Indigenous candidates that you believe are missing. 

We are profiling all of the Indigenous candidates as we gear up towards the election. Candidates that have a INDIGCAND PROFILE have been profiled, you can click on the link to read the profiles.

(click on logo to get to party's indigenous candidates page.)

Current and Historical Indigenous Senators in Canadian Senate

There are currently 22 vacancies in the Senate, now is the opportunity to considering First Nation, Inuit and Metis people who would make great Senators.

Dec. 8, 2015

With all this talk about Senate reform, scandals and abolition, now is a good time to remind people that there are hard-working Senators that do good work. Including a handful of Indigenous senators.

From an Indigenous perspective, First Nation, Metis and Inuit representation in the Upper House has been lacking. There are currently five Indigenous senators, with three becoming of mandatory retirement age over the next 5 years. 

Senators Watt, Sibbeston, Dyck and Lovelace Nicholas are members of the Liberal Senate Forum which is separate from the House of Commons Liberal Party of Canada caucus. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau removed the Liberal Senators from the Liberal Party caucus in January 2014. Senator Patrick Brazeau is currently styled as a Independent Senator but is not a sitting member, full restoration or potential to be removed are pending legal cases. 

There has been suggestions of abolishing the Senate. Respected professor and political pundit Emmet Mcfarlane suggests that abolition or certain structural changes to the Senate makeup would require constitutional change, with unanimous approval of Parliament and all 10 provincial legislatures. With Ontario, Quebec and other provinces against Senate abolition, it very unlikely that a constitutional change to the Senate would pass. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government has chosen a different path (Read) to reform the Senate. Basically, the government would set up a expert panel who would review potential appointments based on merit and contributions to Canadian. The panel would intern suggest appointments to the Prime Minister for appointment to the Senate. 

The Prime Minister plans on appointing five new Senators early in the new year (2016) and fulfill all vacancies by the end of 2016. There are currently 22 vacancies and more to come, now is a good time to start thinking the many First Nation, Inuit and Metis people who could be appointed.

INDIGENOUS SENATORS

Charlie Watt

Inuit (Nunavik), QC

Appointed: Jan. 16, 1984

Appointed by: PM Pierre Trudeau

Term: 31 years serves | 4 years remaining 

BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Nick G. Sibbeston

Liidii Kue (Dehcho)

Appointed: Sept. 2, 1999

Appointed: PM Jean Chretien

NWT

Term: 16 years served | 3 years remaining

BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Lillian Eva Dyck

Cree (Gordon First Nation), SK

Appointed: Mar. 3, 2005

Appointed by: PM Paul Martin

Term: 10 years served | 5 year remaining

BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Sandra Lovelace Nicholas

Maliseet (Tobique First Nation), NB

Appointed: Sept. 9, 2005

Appointed by: PM Paul Martin

Term: 10 years served | 8 remaining

BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Patrick Brazeau

Algonquin (Kitigan Zibi), BC

Appointed: Jan. 8, 2009

Appointed by: PM Stephen Harper

Term: 6 years | 34 years remaining

*Brazeau is a Senator but not currently sitting as a member in the Senate

BIO | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

History of Indigenous Senators

• 15 Indigenous Senators appointed in total
• 5 Indigenous Senators today within the 15 noted
• 9 First Nation, 4 Metis and 2 Inuit
• 3 Women 

List of Indigenous Senators appointed to date (Dec. 2015)

Source(s)

Parliament of Canada: http://tinyurl.com/zyg8sux

Blog: J. Fraser (Dec. 2015)

History of Elected Indigenous MPs Past and Present

History of Elected Indigenous MPs 

• 42 Indigenous MPs elected to date (2015)
• 8 Female
• 15 First Nation, 7 Inuit, 20 Metis
• 4 BC, 1 AB, 5 SK, 11 MB, 3 ON, 4 QC, 4 NL, 4 NT, 6NU
• 7 Conservative
• 4 Progressive Conservative
• 1 Reform Party
• 20 Liberal 
• 6 NDP
• 2 NDP crossed floor to Liberals
• 1 Bloc Quebecois  
• 1 Independent

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Maclean's National Leaders Debate #macdebate references to Indigenous people and issues

Thursday, August 8 - 2015

Maclean's National Leaders Debate #macdebate references to Indigenous people and issues:

A review of references to Indigenous people with key words: "Indigenous, Aboriginal, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, Truth and Reconciliation"

Justin Trudeau

Thomas Mulcair

Justin Trudeau

Elizabeth May

Elizabeth May

Justin Trudeau

Stephen Harper

 Elizabeth May

If you missed the debate you can watch it here: http://www.macleans.ca/national-leaders-debate 

*We believe we captured every specific Indigenous reference, let us know if we haven't.

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SOURCE

URL:

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/tale-of-the-tape-read-a-full-transcript-of-macleans-debate 

Article Title:

Tale of the tape: Read a full transcript of Maclean's Debate - Macleans.ca

Website Title:

Macleans.ca

Publication date:

2015-08-06

History of Indigenous people elected to the House of Commons - #BYTHENUMBERS

Since Canadian Confederation (1867) there have been a hand full of Indigenous people elected to the House of Commons. Indigenous or Aboriginal people include First Nation, Metis and Inuit people. In this post, we provide a look at some of the "firsts" and overall history of Indigenous MPs in Canada. 

According to the Parliament of Canada website, there has been a total of 33 Members of Parliament of Inuit, Metis or First Nation elected people.

Indigenous MPs by the numbers:

• 11 First Nations
• 5 Inuit
• 17 Metis
• 11 Conservative or PC
• 14 Liberals
• 6 NDP
• 1 Bloc Quebecois
• 1 Independent
• Currently there are 7: 4 Conservative, 2 NDP and 1 Liberal

First or significant milestones for Indigenous or Aboriginal MPs: 

FIRST MP

Angus McKay

Metis
Conservative MP (1871-1872)
Marquette, MB
Opposed Louis Riel/Later Indian Agent
Scottish, French & Cree 




FIRST INDEPENDENT MP

Louis Riel

Metis

MP (1873-1874)

Provencher, MB

Leader of the Metis Nation and Father of Confederation (MB)

Never took his seat in the House of Commons

FIRST LIBERAL MP

William Albert Boucher

Metis 

Liberal MP (1948 - 1953)

Rosthern, SK

In 1957 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate

FIRST CABINET MINISTER

Roger Teillet

Metis

Liberal MP (1962-1968)

Saint Boniface, MB

Minister of Veterans Affairs

Lieutenant - RCAF, Manitoba MLA

FIRST - FIRST NATION MP AND CABINET MINISTER

Leonard (Len) Marchand

First Nation

Liberal MP (1968-1979)

Kamloops-Cariboo, BC

From Okanagan Indian Band, Worked for NIB (AFN)

Served as Parliamentary Secretary, Minister of State/Environment

Appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1984

FIRST NDP MP

Walter (Wally) Firth

Metis

NDP MP (1972-1979)

Western Arctic, NWT

Native Rights Activist, Broadcaster, Fur Trader

FIRST INUIT MP

Peter Ittinuar

Inuit

NDP MP (1979-1982)

Nunatsiaq, Nunavut

Crossed the floors to the Liberal Party (1982-1984)

Ran unsuccessfully for the Green Party (2008)

FIRST - FIRST NATION WOMAN AND FEMALE CABINET MINISTER

Ethel Blondin-Andrew

First Nation

Western Arctic, NWT

Liberal MP (1982-2006)

Dene, Chair of Sahtu Secretariat Inc

Secretary/Minister of State (Children & Youth/Education)

Minister of State (Northern Development)

FIRST INUIT WOMAN

Nancy Karetak-Lindell

Inuit 

Liberal MP (1997-2008)

Nunavut

Parliament Secretary (Natural Resources)

Financial Comptroller, Arviat Municipal Council

FIRST BLOC QUEBECOIS

Bernard Cleary

First Nation

Bloc Quebecois MP (2006-2008)

Louis-Saint-Laurent

FIRST INUIT CABINET MINISTER

Leona Aglukkaq

Inuit

Conservative MP (2008-2015)

Nunavut

Minister of Environment (former Health Minister)

Former Minister of Health & Social Services in Nunavut

FIRST METIS FEMALE AND CABINET MINISTER

Shelly Glover

Metis

Conservative MP (2008-2015)

Saint Boniface, MB

Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Former Police Officer

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Recommended read:

 

Exploring the Issues of Aboriginal Represenation in Federal Elections

http://www.elections.ca/res/eim/article_search/article.asp?id=25&lang=e&frmPageSize

 

Source: Elections Canada (2003)

 

Anna Hunter
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan

 

Aboriginal people can make a strong claim that the federal electoral system perpetuates their exclusion. The level of Aboriginal voter participation in federal electoral politics remains low,¹ and their ability to successfully translate political participation into the nomination and election of

 

Aboriginal people to the House of Commons is even lower.² This lack of representation of Aboriginal people in formal political processes signifies such a high degree of political alienation that it threatens the legitimacy of the Canadian democratic electoral system. It also sustains a very tenuous relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. Read More....



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Notes:

• Main source: Members of of the House of Commons: Inuit, Metis or First Nations Origin
• Please feel free to contact us with additional or missing details