The Blueprint: Conservative Parties and Their Impact on Canadian Politics by J. P. Lewis & Joanna Everitt

Author:J. P. Lewis & Joanna Everitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Conclusion

Though this chapter has focused primarily on “conservative” Indigenous policy discourses emanating from a chain of populist parties speaking on behalf of “all Canadians,” it is important to note that Indigenous voices did not passively accept the integrationist measures implemented by the Conservative government. In response to many of the amendments embedded within the Jobs and Growth Act, an Indigenous grassroots social movement known as Idle No More formed to protest the government’s policy enactments and to raise awareness of Indigenous concerns surrounding ongoing forms of colonial dispossession and violence. Engaging in demonstrations, hunger strikes, and other forms of resistance across the country (see chapter 4 in this volume), the Idle No More movement called upon the federal government to respect the “spirit and intent” of treaties by recognizing the pre-existing rights to land and sovereignty possessed by Indigenous peoples.

Indeed, the continuing grassroots mobilization of Indigenous communities was also readily apparent in the forty-second Canadian general election. While rates of electoral participation among Indigenous people in Canada have tended to be lower than those of non-Indigenous Canadians – for such reasons as geographic dispersal, political alienation, and conceptions of inherent sovereignty and citizenship (Ladner and McCrossan 2007) – the 2015 federal election resulted in notable differences in relation to both Indigenous policy and Indigenous electoral participation. In particular, the 2015 federal election not only saw the highest number of Indigenous MPs (ten) elected to the House of Commons (see Talaga 2015), but also potentially the largest increase in participation rates among Indigenous peoples in Canada, with turnout in some communities reportedly rising by more than 270 per cent (Puxley 2015). While this was driven partially by a reaction to the Conservative policies canvassed above, as well as by clear efforts to mobilize substantial numbers of Indigenous voters to effect governmental change (Talaga 2015), it is also worthwhile to note some differences in policy discourse during the campaign. Though the federal leaders debates themselves were largely devoid of substantive discussion of Indigenous issues,11 both NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau vowed to renew a “nation-to-nation” relationship and achieve “reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples, in speeches given before the annual general meeting of the Assembly of First Nations (CBC News 2015).

In fact, not only did Trudeau repeat this commitment throughout the campaign, but in his speech before the Assembly of First Nations, he also invoked the “two-row wampum” itself in the context of a “renewed relationship” (Liberal Party 2015). As the Two-Row Wampum conveys an understanding of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois or Six Nations) Confederacy’s conception of their treaty relationship with settler nations, or a relationship predicated upon peaceful coexistence where both parties recognized the jurisdictional autonomy of each nation and the possibility for separate legal orders to coexist within a shared “space” (see Asch 2014, quoting Dale Turner at 113), this reference is significant. If, as the new prime minister has stated, he is sincerely committed to establishing a “nation-to-nation” relationship with Indigenous peoples, then Trudeau’s invocation of the “two-row

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