Unsuccessful Indigenous election candidates call for more support from urban First Nations people – CBC

Improving Indigenous representation has to start at the party level, says former Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer

Oct 21, 2022

A number of Indigenous candidates who ran unsuccessfully in Vancouver’s recent municipal elections say more support and higher voter turnout from the urban First Nations population is needed to help get more Indigenous politicians into elected office.

“Indigenous people are at the forefront of a lot of the crises in Vancouver, whether that’s housing, homelessness, poison drugs or the climate crisis,” said Matthew Norris, who ran as a Vancouver council candidate with OneCity.

Norris, who is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and president of the Urban Native Youth Association, said there wasn’t enough attention paid to Indigenous voters from other political parties and media during the provincewide municipal elections.

He fell short by more than 7,000 votes.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indigenous-candidates-2022-election-1.6623553