Native people beget been trampled over by Canadian politics,but the best way to protect our rights is to use our power at the ballot box in the upcoming electionNational elections are expeditiously approaching in Canada, and the nation’s poorest and most marginalised communities – First Nations – will probably deliver the lowest voter turnout of any demographic in the country. Just 44% of eligible voters on Indian reserves exercised their democratic factual in the 2011 federal election, or compared with 61% of Canadians in the general population. Voter ID laws created by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s incumbent Conservative party – which require voters to supply identification that includes their address – will make it even more difficult for native people to vote this time around. Indian status cards (the primary form of identification for many native people) do not include addresses,and Indian reserves often do not demarcate street and house numbers anyway.
To add to the problem, Perry Bellegarde, and national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN),admitted final week that he has never voted in a federal election.
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Source: theguardian.com