Indigenous people face 'internal dilemma' when deciding whether or not to vote, says expert

CBC

14-04-2025

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For many Indigenous people, deciding whether to cast a ballot in the upcoming federal election is a complicated choice.
"We can impact the vote, it's whether or not we choose to," said Chadwick Cowie, who is Ojibway from Hiawatha First Nation in southern Ontario, and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
"The internal dilemma is very understandable, and I don't hold it against anyone who chooses not to vote based on treaty rights."
He said some First Nations people must take the time to reflect on whether or not voting makes sense to them.
"The idea of citizenship in the Canadian state hasn't been one to necessarily treat us as equals, but rather to be utilized as a way of furthering settler colonialism," said Cowie.
Inuit were granted the right to vote in 1950, but many of them didn't see a ballot box in their home community that decade. Elections Canada says all Arctic communities got voting services by 1962.
First Nations people wouldn't be granted the right to vote federally until 1960.
2015 voting surge
The 2015 election was on the heels of Idle No More, a protest movement that grew to encompass everything from Indigenous sovereignty and protecting the treaties to addressing social and economic inequalities.
"Indigenous people were deciding to vote, not because of having a sense of duty to being a Canadian citizen, but a sense of duty to their own nations and wanting to see a government in place that would actually listen to them," said Cowie.
"For First Nations people, it was more that they had enough of a government that consistently steamrolled them."
The overall Indigenous voter turnout is not recorded by Elections Canada, but they do track the turnout on reserves.
In 2015, Elections Canada reported 61.5 per cent of First Nations voters living on reserve cast a ballot, an increase of 14 percentage points from the 2011 election. The turnout for the general population was 66 per cent.
In the 2021 election, 62.6 per cent of Canadians voted, and 44.5 per cent of people living on reserve voted.
"The lack of conversation on reconciliation and treaty rights and all these other things that had been dominant in 2015 … it's not at the forefront," said Cowie.
In this election, Cowie said, the political climate is much different from 2015.
"We've always dealt with an onslaught of people trying to assimilate or take us over or control us, and we're now dealing with that … not just from Canada, but also now we're seeing it from the United States," said Cowie.
"I think it's causing confusion over what to do and how to go about doing it."
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There are groups still trying to empower Indigenous voters, including the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), whose campaign focuses on informing First Nations voters on where the parties stand on Indigenous issues, and reminding the federal parties the Indigenous vote matters.
"We are focused on ensuring that all parties understand our position and how First Nations people, First Nations communities … need to be involved in the discussions surrounding any votes," said AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson.
Issues left unaddressed
Wilson said many of the promises made in 2015 by the Liberal Party still remain unresolved.
"There are so many very important areas that continually go unaddressed … housing infrastructure, clean drinking water, child welfare – the issues still remain," said Wilson.
"First Nations people need to be part of these discussions, they need to participate in the election."
For Wilson, upholding the treaties is her top priority.
"[We] need to be able to figure this out together, First Nations and government and the Crown, how are we going to uphold the treaties that were promised, and signed onto … with all our ancestors," said Wilson.