Working to get aboriginal vote out

One group believes a strategic vote can change Saskatchewan’s political landscape.

“Every vote matters,” said Glenda Abbott, one of the organizers of Indigenous Vote 2015.

“In the last federal election, if 6,200 more people in key ridings would have gone out and voted, we would not have had a majority government.”

Indigenous Vote Sask. 2015 is hosting a series of volunteer call-out sessions in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert to start the ball rolling on its goal to get as many aboriginal people out to the polls this federal election.

“We are going to do as much as we can between now and election day,” said Abbott. “It’s all dependent on how many volunteers we can get.”

She said the time for change has come for aboriginal people to begin exercising their democratic right to vote.

So Abbott and co-founder Melody Wood created the Facebook page Indigenous Vote 2015 in an attempt to unite aboriginal people who are also ready for change and want to help.

“We are just two votes, but we need thousands,” said Abbott.

Time is of the essence, because a federal election could be called as early as this spring.

“Each of our three voter call-outs we have had between 80 and 90 people who said they will come and if we got half that number I think we could do really, really great things in the province of Saskatchewan,” said Abbott. “I really hope people come out and realize how important this next federal election is.”

The movement is not only to mobilize the indigenous vote in the province, but to move indigenous issues in districts and communities.

“It’s a collective vote for indigenous issues,” said Abbott.

The first step is to get the volunteers.

Then it’s to get people registered to vote.

“We have acknowledged No. 1 that we have (identification) issues — ID barriers, so that’s one of the key things we want to address,” said Abbott. “So we want to get a whole lot of minds together and think, ‘How can we overcome this because that’s what it’s going to take — more minds, more ideas.”

In addition to getting people to the polls, the group will need to educate people about why their vote matters.

Abbott would like to do community outreach work, so those living in rural settings also have the information and tools they need to get their community involved.

“Not every community will have that mentality that it’s important to vote, but I hope enough communities have it in them to realize that when we are not voting, all of our votes are actually voting for a party — they are voting for a party to win a majority, they are voting for a party to win a minority — and our lack of voting is actually a grander statement than actually going out and putting our X,” she said.

Anyone interested in finding out more information can join the Indigenous Vote 2015 Facebook group and send a message or attend one of the volunteer call out sessions.

The group’s first meeting was in Saskatoon on Tuesday, then on Thursday in Prince Albert and Jan. 27 in Regina.