Council diversity remains a challenge

Cree-Métis artist to become first Indigenous councillor since Kiviaq

Across Canada, only seven per cent of municipal council seats are held by visible minorities, according to a study of the 50 largest cities.

For years, Edmonton had just one representative among 13 councillors — Amarjeet Sohi, then Moe Banga, both in Ward 12 — despite having 22 per cent of its population from South Asian, Chinese, Filipino and other visible minority communities.

However, the needle moved slightly on a different front Tuesday, when Indigenous artist Aaron Paquette was sworn in.

He is Cree and Métis on his father’s side, and will be the city’s first Indigenous councillor since Kiviaq (then David Ward) served from 1968 to 1974.

Political science experts are not surprised.

“Without parties, it’s harder for members of a visible minority to break through,” said Karen Bird, a McMaster University professor who used websites, photos and news reports to count diversity on councils across the country in 2016.

People with Indigenous heritage are classified as a separate group from visible minorities by Statistics Canada.

Bird looked for Indigenous representation, too, but it was minimal.

At the federal and provincial levels, political parties support new candidates with fundraising and volunteers, she said.

At the municipal level, that doesn’t happen in a formal way. “Candidates are on their own,” said Bird.

Winning depends on your connections, and if there’s an old boys’ club, it makes for a tougher fight.

That was African-Canadian Beatrice Ghettuba’s experience. She first ran for the federal Liberal party in St. Albert, then was taken aback when she ran in Ward 4 and discovered how challenging it was.

“You need a power behind you, an interest ... That’s how I see the landscape,” said Ghettuba, 64, former chair of the board for Edmonton’s Africa Centre. She finished eighth.

Paquette is a former federal NDP candidate and had help from many NDP supporters. Premier Rachel Notley’s husband, Lou Arab, was his campaign manager.

Rocco Caterina, son of current councillor Tony Caterina, secured many developer and union donations and finished second.

When Ghettuba asked for donations, she was told they contributed elsewhere.

Of course, she still could have won. She needed 2,691 more votes to beat Paquette. But many of her community members, she said, “they did not come out to vote. They are chronically guilty of that.”

She doesn’t plan to run again, but to set up a fund, gather volunteers and help younger women run.

Beside the structural issues — access to cash and volunteers — affinity voting, or racial discrimination, could hurt minority candidates.

Randy Besco, a University of Toronto post-doctoral fellow, found evidence of that when he analyzed all federal election results from 2004 through 2011.

But it only affected Conservative candidates — reducing vote totals three to five per cent — not Liberal or NDP candidates, he said.

His paper on the topic is still under review, but he thinks at the federal level, “a lot of people will support you just because you are the Liberal candidate or the Conservative candidate.”

At the municipal level, people vote for you as an individual, Besco said. “If people are discriminating, those effects (could be) a lot bigger.”

Bird studied ethnic diversity in Toronto’s 2014 municipal election, surveying voters afterward. If there was an incumbent, that’s all that mattered.

Where there was no incumbent, she found racial affinity existed — people voted for candidates like them. Twenty-four per cent of the candidates in those races were from minority communities. Only 11 per cent of white voters supported those candidates, while 31 per cent of visible minority voters did the same.

In Toronto, that hurts candidates from visible minority communities because they’ve historically been less likely to vote.

Bird thinks affinity voting happens at the municipal level because without party affiliation, making an informed decision requires research. “(Some) voters don’t really know who (the candidates) are. They rely on short cuts.”

Bird doesn’t know if that holds true for Edmonton.

In the Oct. 16 election, 69 people ran for a council seat in Edmonton. Of those, about 25 per cent were from a visible minority community, plus three per cent were Indigenous.

But winning an election is also about having experience and being known in the community.

During the mayoral debates, candidate Fahad Mughal pushed for Edmonton to ensure at least all council appointed boards and advisory committees reflect Edmonton’s diversity.

Mayor Don Iveson included that language in his next campaign announcement and promised to launch a mayor’s task force on racism and discrimination.

In the past, council has talked about trying to ensure diversity among the roughly 200 people it appoints to boards, but officials don’t track how well they’re doing.

You need a power behind you, an interest . ... That’s how I see the landscape.