Former chief hopes to represent Northern riding

Former Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Lawrence Joseph is taking another run at federal politics.

On Saturday, he was officially nominated as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.  

“I want to say I accept with gratitude and honour the nomination that you have blessed me with to represent the Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River riding in the next election hopefully coming up in March or sooner,” he said.  The election, however, could happen as late as October.

During his acceptance speech at the Best Western in Prince Albert, Joseph asked if the people present had read Common Ground by Justin Trudeau, which he said has many valid revelations.

Only a few people raised their hands. One point he said he took away from the book was the importance of proper representation in Parliament.

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Joseph said community members across Saskatchewan deserve to have their voices heard where they live, as well as in Ottawa.

“The only thing that we have is Harper’s voice in our communities and I pledge to you when I’m elected I will be your voice out there, not only your voice, but also your fighter, your warrior,” he said.

The most important thing in public service, according to Joseph, is community support and prayer. He said he can’t be a strong candidate on his own; he needs the voice of the people behind him.

Joseph said he wants to be “an authentic voice, meaning a person who…came from extreme poverty on a reserve…meaning no lights, no power, no running water, no food, no clothing…extreme poverty in a Canadian democracy; To what I have the privilege to do today is attempt to represent that extreme poverty that still exists not only in our Metis and First Nations’ country, but also in non-First Nations, non-Aboriginal country.”

The Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River riding has 25 First Nations’ ridings including the Peter Ballantyne Band and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. However, Joseph said he will be the “authentic” voice for all people in the riding.

“I don’t really want to sound like I’m going to represent only the Indian people in this riding,” he said. “I want to include all those people that are here, non-First Nations as part of our family, part of our team, to move forward, to move this agenda forward not a dictatorship.”

Joseph used the word dictatorship because he feels Harper passes bills after only listening to the opinion of a few people.

“We have a prime minister that has chosen to put stack of bills and push them through as … omnibus bills just like put them on a bus and ship them away,” he said. “This is our chance, our opportunity and our obligation to take that dictatorship away from dangerous hands.”

Joseph has heard similar complaints from people he knows in Creighton, Sask.

“There’s a couple there that says ‘our war-cry is A.B.C,’ and I said ‘what’s that stand for?’ They said ‘anybody, but the Conservatives.’”

After many years of public service Joseph said he is appalled by the lack of democracy that actually exists in Canada and he wants to make a difference.

In 2011, Joseph ran as an NDP candidate against Clarke.  Joseph lost by just over 200 votes.

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @KaylaBruch1