Fewer people voted on-reserve in Alberta in last federal election compared to 2015, new data shows
Experts say there are several reasons why the last federal election saw fewer votes
Fewer people voted on-reserve in Alberta during the last federal election compared to 2015, and experts say there could be many reasons why.
Alberta had the largest drop in on-reserve voter turnout compared to any other province or territory, according to Elections Canada data released Monday.
In Alberta, 42.5 per cent of eligible on-reserve voters cast ballots last year. That's a roughly 16-per-cent drop from the 2015 federal election.
"I'm shocked that Alberta's numbers dropped that much," said Nipâwi Kakinoosit, a national Indigenous youth leader who is from Sucker Creek First Nation in northern Alberta.
Every other province and territory (with the exception of Yukon) saw a decrease in on-reserve voter turnout.
- First Nations vote unlikely to hit levels seen in 2015 election, say experts
- Canadian election drew nearly 66% of registered voters
The most recent data shows only 52.9 per cent of the 380,360 eligible on-reserve voters cast ballots in 2019, a drop of nearly nine per cent compared to four years earlier.
The drop came despite the fact that last fall's numbers included a tally of each special ballot that was cast in a different riding or in a riding for the first time since Elections Canada started calculating turnout for Indigenous populations in 2004.
The 2015 federal election saw much higher on-reserve voting, and experts say there were likely numerous reasons for that.
Just because we're not voting, doesn't mean we're not impacting policies.- Nipâwi Kakinoosit, national Indigenous youth leader
"There was a lot of push to change, to get out of the Conservative government," said lawyer Naomi Sayers.
On-reserve voter turnout doesn't include all Indigenous voters.
Indigenous people who voted off-reserve aren't included in the tally; Elections Canada does not capture demographic information at the polls.
There are many reasons why Indigenous people choose not to vote, Kakinoosit told CBC News.
Viewing Indigenous nations as sovereign and distinct, Indigenous people might feel uncomfortable participating in Canada's electoral system, he said.
He said most Indigenous communities have their own governing systems.
"Just because we're not voting, doesn't mean we're not impacting policies," said Kakinoosit, co-founder of Idle No More B.C. "If you look at economics and other factors, we are influencing policy, just not in the ballot box but in other ways."
Kakinoosit and Sayers agree political parties need to do more voter engagement on reserve if they want to increase votes.
"If they want us to vote for them, they need to come to us from sincerity and not just when it benefits them during election time," Kakinoosit said. "They have to convince us to even participate in the system.
"In order for any one party to change the voter turnout on-reserve, they quite frankly need to come to the reserve and actually talk to us."
The full report from Elections Canada on the 2019 on-reserve voter turnout is expected to come out this fall.