Black, Indigenous advocates reflect on historic elections in Canada

Black and Indigenous advocates and leaders are reflecting on the impact two historic elections will have across Canada.

On Tuesday, Federal Parliament elected Greg Fergus as Speaker of the House, making him the first Black Canadian in the role.

Fergus has been a Liberal MP for Hull-Aylmer since 2015 and has been a Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and to the Minister of Health. He also founded and co-chaired the Parliamentary Black Caucus for six years.

Velma Morgan with Black Vote Canada was in Ottawa for the historic announcement along with a cohort of around 20 young people as a part of their civic leadership
and public policy program for Black Canadian youth.

“I [said] to them, ‘You’re not going to know or understand the moment right now, but a week from now, a year from now, 10 years from now, you’re going to be [like] ‘I witnessed history, I witnessed the first Black Speaker of the House of Commons for Canada.’ So it was perfect.”

“I’m on cloud nine … the fact that we just happen to be here. It’s just perfect.”

Just a few hours later, Manitobans made history by electing an NDP government led by Wab Kinew, who is to become the first First Nations premier of a province in Canada.

John Norquay was the first Indigenous person to serve as Manitoba’s premier. Norquay, who was Metis, became the province’s fifth premier in 1878.

Kinew was raised as a young boy on the Onigaming First Nation in northwestern Ontario, later moving with his family to Winnipeg. His late father was a residential school survivor who endured horrific abuse and passed on to Kinew the importance of Anishinaabe culture and language.

Kinew’s uncle Fred, who is a residential school survivor, joined him on stage during his victory address.

“I’m very proud he was there to be family and spiritual support for us … think about what yesterday meant for him, who experienced the worst in our country’s history. Whatever feeling I have pales in comparison to how humble I feel to be walking in the trail that was blazed by others in our province,” said Kinew.

Former National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations Perry Bellegarde said this election is an historic moment for the whole country.

“To see Wab being elected as Canada’s first First Nations premier, it bodes well and speaks well to the acceptance of leadership, and it bodes well for people embracing reconciliation, not only Manitoba, but Canada as a whole,” said Bellegarde. “I’ve always said we’ve got to get our people around key decision-making tables in the private sector and in the public sector.”

He adds he believes this could change politics in Canada.

“As First Nations people, we didn’t get the right to vote till 1961, and we weren’t allowed to even leave our reserve without a permit till 1951,” said Bellegarde.

Bellegarde added when the Truth and Reconciliation report came out in 2015 during his time as National Chief, he urged Canadians to “get rid of discrimination and racism and hatred towards Indigenous peoples and replace it with acceptance and love and caring and compassion,” and said this is exactly what Manitobans did.

“They rose above the divisive arguments and the divisive messaging from the parties and rose above that and elected a person that is well educated, that is bilingual, French and English and Ojibwa and is going to do a job for all of Manitobans.”

Kinew told reporters Wednesday that he’s pleased voters rejected the politics of division and embraced his party’s message of unity.

“It’s my intention to move the ball forward so that the future generation can do even more powerful things than we can imagine today,” said Kinew

“(Becoming premier) is the most difficult thing that I’ve ever done in my life, and the real work hasn’t even begun yet,” he added.

Morgan tells CityNews more work needs to be done but they are going to celebrate the accomplishments this week.

“Words can’t put into place, how we feel that our work has impacted the community. But it has been a big win for Canada, [for] Canadian politics,” she said.

She adds representation matters.

“These two individuals being elected is telling those communities, our communities that we can achieve great things when we put our minds to it and act, telling everybody else that, you know what, we can lead as well. We do have those strategies. We do have those skills and we’re just ecstatic.”

With files from The Canadian Press