Put native issues on the agenda
Published Monday October 6th, 2008
Elections are about winning the most votes. This statement is blatantly obvious and even the most cursory observer of politics would know that. However, this statement is one worth reminding ourselves of.
During election campaigns, our party leaders focus on winning the votes of the largest and most electorally influential constituencies - Ontario and Quebec, urban voters and the "middle class," among others. What is of concern is that the voices of the silent minorities - those who have little electoral clout - go unheard. This includes issues such as poverty and aboriginal rights.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote a book, The Culture of Contentment, in which he discussed the disturbing trend of political debate to focus on the wealthy and middle classes, and to the neglect the concerns of the poor and those without a voice.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine, speaking at the Ontario Economic Summit at Niagara-on-the-Lake, emphasized how issues of poverty afflicting First Nations communities have gone largely unheard in this election. Fontaine discussed the large youth population in aboriginal communities, half of whose residents are under the age of 25, and how these youth are denied the chance to fully contribute to Canadian society due to crushing poverty and inadequate resources.
Fontaine illustrated how proper educational facilities are lacking for aboriginal youth. Eighty-eight per cent of aboriginal children have no access to early childhood programs and funding of language education, libraries and computers is sorely lacking. Schools in First Nations communities are in serious disrepair and one in three First Nations youth do not graduate from high school.
In an affluent and developed country like Canada, these conditions are unacceptable.
Fontaine further emphasized how this is not just a moral issue, it's an economic issue as well. A large aboriginal youth population being hindered from fully participating in the labour force represents a serious missed economic opportunity for our country.
Unfortunately, Stephen Harper has been a hindrance when it comes to helping First Nations communities. Harper is to be praised for pledging to move forward on land claims issues, and for apologizing for the Residential School system, but his refusal to honour the Kelowna Accord remains a dark stain on his tenure as prime minister.
Kelowna was a deal negotiated in good faith between the federal government, provincial governments and First Nations communities to provide much-needed funding to fight poverty and provide proper facilities. Harper's refusal to honour this accord is a setback for aboriginal communities struggling with poverty, and for our country both morally and economically.
Like many of Harper's policies, from his support of George W. Bush's militaristic foreign policy to his opposition to universal daycare and his jailing of young offenders alongside adults, the refusal to honour Kelowna is driven by a hard-right ideology.
One of Stephen Harper's closest advisers is the American-born academic Tom Flanagan, a professor from the University of Calgary who is a member of the right-wing "Calgary School" which promote policies of limited government, unfettered markets (like the ones that led to the disaster on Wall Street), and the gutting of social programs such as medicare.
Flanagan also has based his academic career on denying the rights of aboriginals and devising arguments to undermine their claims.
This is all consistent with Harper's history of denigrating Canada's social justice commitments.
When Harper was vice president of the conservative National Citizens Coalition, he spoke to a group of Republicans. In this speech, he condemned Canada as a "Northern European welfare state" and denigrated both Canada's "universal, collectivized, health care" system and "multicultural policies."
It is hard to believe that someone with such a low opinion of Canada and of basic social justice issues is our prime minister.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May is to be commended for emphasizing aboriginal issues in her campaign. She brought up the importance of Kelowna during an interview with the CBC's Peter Mansbridge and, at the French language debate, raised the issue of how aboriginal concerns have received little attention during this campaign.
In Parliament, former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin has raised the issue of aboriginal rights and pressured the Conservative government to honour Kelowna.
Combating poverty, helping First Nations communities and giving all Canadians a chance to succeed are important moral obligations that should not be ignored. They are also economic imperatives. Unfortunately, these are issues that Stephen Harper has ignored.
Let us hope that after this election we have a prime minister who will not ignore these pressing concerns and will take pride both in Canada's social justice commitments and in helping struggling First Nations communities.
Hassan Arif is a graduate of UNB Law School and received his MA in Political Science at Carleton University. He resides in Fredericton.
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