Prof says U.S. threats to Canada will dominate federal election at the expense of Indigenous issues – APTN News
Mar 20, 2025
A First Nations professor at McGill University says people shouldn’t expect Indigenous issues to play a prominent role in the upcoming federal election.
“Right now, in an unprecedented political climate that it is in international relations and foreign affairs that dominate conversations in politics these days,” Veldon Coburn, a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan and part of the Indigenous Relations Initiative at McGill told Nation to Nation. “All across Ottawa, it is the reorganization and realignment of trade alliances, shoring up our allies where we have good friends in the international community and our domestic affairs are focused on essentially buttressing the economy.”
Coburn said that, as was the case during the Liberal leadership race, U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex and impose tariffs on Canada will take up most of the campaign oxygen at the expense of other issues.
