Heavy Head confirms bid for mayor’s chair
In 2013, Martin Heavy Head says he became the first Indigenous candidate to run for Lethbridge City Council. While he didn’t win one of the eight councillor seats, he did receive more than 4,200 votes or 19.5 per cent. On Monday, Heavy Head decided to kick it up a notch and throw his name in for mayor.
People were asking him if he was going to run for city councillor again.
“I was saying ‘oh no, I doubt it, I doubt it.’ And then I decided this morning I would do mayor instead,” he said with a smile. “I realized it’s a larger platform to talk about the things I actually care about.”
One of the main issues, he said, is the lack of appropriate infrastructure to care for the most vulnerable citizens. He noted the local YWCA had to turn away more than 600 women and children last year due to lack of housing space.
“What kind of place are we in where that happens? That really speaks about the infrastructure problem of what we’re doing for vulnerable people, or the lack thereof.”
In turn, there are more people living on the streets and a larger fentanyl crisis than the city is “willing to admit,” he said.
“Because of that, there needs to be better infrastructure that’s based on healing in order to deal with that, because people who are addicted are not there because they’re lazy or stupid or anything like that, they’re there because they have a deep psychological, spiritual trauma that they’re in pain over and that needs to be healed.”
Heavy Head believes racism is still very evident in Lethbridge, and he said he witnesses it every single day.
“This has to be really truly, meaningfully, intentionally fixed,” he said. “This is something we don’t need to be dealing with anymore. I’m tired of it.”
Those are all things he is passionate about and form the basis of his platform.
Heavy Head stressed there are many working to provide better representation for FNMI in Lethbridge. If he inspires others to reach for their goals, all the better. Whether he is elected or not, Heavy Head said he will still be an advocate.
“That work is going to continue,” he said. “Advocacy only goes so far, but unless you get people in positions of power who are actually going to willingly direct their energies to doing this, then we’re not going to see a lot of change.”
Heavy Head is deeply involved in Blackfoot culture and spirituality. He is also a sixth-year student at the University of Lethbridge, studying psychology, philosophy and political science. He’s also worked a wide variety of jobs, “most of it dealing with people,” he said.
Heavy Head spent several years caring for seniors in a nursing home, he worked on the railroad in the United States, and has also been a park interpreter.
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