Vote split could benefit NDP in N.W.T.
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 | 3:15 PM ET
CBC News
This is the first time voters in the federal riding of Western Arctic have had two mainstream Dene candidates to choose from. With incumbent MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew winning by just 53 votes in the last election, a factor like splitting the aboriginal vote could prove key to victory.
Blondin-Andrew, a Sahtu Dene, is running for the Liberals while Rick Edjericon, a Chipewyan, is running for the Conservatives. Dennis Bevington, a non-aboriginal, is running for the NDP.
- RIDING PROFILE: Western Arctic
Former territorial politician Steve Nitah, who lives in the community of Lutsel K'e, southeast of Yellowknife, thinks the split will be regional. He says he's switching his support from Blondin-Andrew to Edjericon of the Conservatives, with whom he shares Chipewyan ancestry.
"In the South Slave, there'll be a lot of support for Rick because that's who they're familiar with," he says. "There will still be a lot of support for Ethel in the Sahtu because that's who they're comfortable with."
Dene count for about a third of voters in Western Arctic, and voting patterns suggest they place greater emphasis on shared ancestry than do mainstream voters.
That's made the Dene an important base of support for Blondin-Andrew, the five-time incumbent for the Liberals. But with Edjericon, the former chief of Dettah, in the race, that block of support will have to be shared.
"If you look at the results from past elections, you will see that native candidates have done very well, especially in smaller Dene communities," says Dave Nickerson, who represented the N.W.T. as MP in the 1970s and 80s. "The smaller the settlement, the more likely they were to have supported a candidate with native ancestry."
Nickerson, a Tory, says he had little success cracking the smaller aboriginal communities when he ran for office, while aboriginal candidates did well.
"If I was in Dennis Bevington's shoes, and I know he is not going to say this publicly, he is probably delighted that two of his opponents are people of native ancestry, because they are going to split the votes between them," he says. "I mean, there is a possibility that could happen."
All Edjericon has to do is take 53 votes from Blondin-Andrew to allow Bevington to "walk down the middle", Nickerson says.
Nitah says First Nations people don't vote as a block, and there are many other factors that go into the decision– party policies, the national popularity of the parties and the leaders. But the presence of aboriginal candidates is still attractive, he adds.
"I think it is very important for an aboriginal person to vote for somebody that is aboriginal," he says. "I think Canada's history is not that great towards aboriginal people. Until recently we have never seen aboriginal people in the halls of Parliament, and non-aboriginal Canadians have not been good to aboriginal people."
Still, the desire to vote for an aboriginal candidate could bring aboriginal voters just the opposite result– a non-aboriginal MP.
A similar situation occurred in the northern Saskatchewan riding of Desnethé –Missinippi–Churchill River in the last election. There, three aboriginal candidates split the vote, allowing a non-native lawyer to come up the middle for the Conservatives.
