With the recent Liberal leadership election and the new Premier sworn in now behind us, who else is feeling let down? When I made the effort to cast my vote in person, I was shocked to see that the room was almost packed. There were more Indigenous people in attendance than I have previously witnessed before at Liberal events — at times it had been only myself. The energy in the room appeared to be with Doris Bill. While standing in line, I had the thought that politics does have the power to reduce barriers and bring people together. After leaving the voting, I thought it would be Doris Bill announced as the winner. However, this was not the result and I wish to congratulate Premier Mike Pemberton on his win.
Based upon reflection, I wish to ask Yukoners — did we miss a huge opportunity for leadership in challenging times to look past our own fears and misunderstandings? We had the opportunity to potentially have the first Indigenous female Premier in the Yukon and a real chance at putting someone in office with exceptional experience at running a government. Yes, Yukon First Nations are governments and arguably the backbone of what makes Yukon a great place to live. I feel that Doris deserved a shot because we are in turbulent times. As we are witnessing in Ontario and British Columbia, there continues to be tension between the fast tracking of development and where Indigenous peoples stand in this country. The Yukon has shown it can punch way beyond its size in terms of Indigenous self-governance and devolution. To continue to do this means taking real steps to move beyond the silos of power, consultation and positioning First Nations simply as advisors. Instead, we should be creating a real space for Indigenous peoples in the broad-based governance of the Yukon. With no disrespect to Premier Pemberton, some of these challenges/opportunities may have benefited from an Indigenous perspective and experience. These times will require leadership and real commitment by the current and future Yukon governments to seek innovative solutions and approaches that question how we currently and continue to do things.
The Yukon is an amazing place to live and to keep it this way let’s think innovatively and out of the box while holding on to what is important to Yukoners. For instance, how do we harness the creativity and resources of all the governments and players in the Yukon? It is this kind of thinking that is needed now rather than later. There is way too much at stake in terms of education, housing, health, economy, environment, emergency preparedness, climate change, energy, sovereignty, security, cost of living and resource development. This is also a message to all the political parties because there is no one party or person that has all the answers and to continue in the same way means we will not be making any significant efforts to break down barriers and misunderstandings. How do we ensure that Indigenous peoples are a cornerstone of this upcoming election? Because ensuring a prosperous future for the Yukon cannot be done without Yukon First Nations.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Ignace
Whitehorse resident
PhD. Candidate,
School of Environmental Studies
University of Victoria
