SASKATOON – The Saskatchewan general election is less than two weeks away. In preparation, Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) has launched an initiative to get more First Nation voters to the polls.
On Tuesday, STC Chief Felix Thomas announced staff will be going door-to-door and holding information sessions in an effort to register and inform aboriginal voters.
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“Voting gets people engaged and for the last number of years, our First Nations people haven’t been engaged in the mainstream political system and we’re trying to not only correct that but we think everybody deserves to be represented,” Thomas said.
“Our big message is that ‘your vote matters’ and what we’ve been telling people is that whether it’s the federal or provincial and we’ll do this in municipal elections that everyone deserves to be represented.”
The initiative has a specific focus on young voters. Thomas says there are thousands of aboriginal post-secondary students in Saskatoon who may be more open to the idea of voting than past generations.
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“I think there are a number of different things why we didn’t vote in the past. A lot of them have to do with demographics. Now we’re seeing in the last generation we have a generation of young people and a lot of urbanization,” Thomas said.
Thomas hopes First Nations people can build on positive voter turnout seen in the recent federal election.
“We see the voter turnout was statistically higher,” Thomas said.
“More people are starting to become more involved, especially the younger generation. They’re more civically minded than perhaps we used to be and so that’s something we hope will spill over now in the provincial side.”
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The tribal council is also calling for all political parties to release platform positions on First Nations-related issues that impact the Saskatoon region and the seven reserves it represents.
“Now we see the provincial parties have their different platforms but absent is they’ll see something on First Nations but then it’s a generic platform and it doesn’t go specifically to what we see as important and that’s something we’re trying to rectify that First Nations are different,” Thomas said.
“We believe it is extremely important for First Nation eligible voters to understand exactly what the position of each party is on issues important to them so that our people can make informed decisions on who to support on April 4.”
Once Saskatchewan elects a premier, Thomas hopes STC will be not only included in the decision-making process but also help decide what’s important to First Nations people.
Eligible indigenous voters can call or text Donna at 306-370-1171 or 306-956-6100 if they need help getting ready to cast their ballot.
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