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Conservative MP Billy Morin says he will spend the summer talking to Indigenous leaders about encouraging people to vote in the Alberta referendum on Oct. 19.
Albertans are set to vote on whether they want to stay in Canada or prefer to hold a future binding referendum on separating from the country.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he and his caucus will be campaigning across Alberta this summer and encouraging people to stay in “the Canadian family.”
Morin, who was chief of Enoch Cree Nation before entering federal politics, says he understands many First Nations people are hesitant to vote — but this referendum is different.
He says he sees chiefs in his home province fighting for treaties.
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Treaty rights are the constitutionally recognized, nation-to-nation agreements signed more than a century ago between the Crown and Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
The lands of five different treaty nations fall within the boundaries of Alberta: the big three are Treaty 8 across northern Alberta, Treaty 6 in Edmonton and central Alberta, and Treaty 7 stretching from south of Red Deer to the Canada-U.S. border.
Small slivers of two other regions also stretch into Alberta: Treaty 10 near Cold Lake, and Treaty 4 east of Medicine Hat.
First Nations in Alberta are fighting back against separatists in court and in May, a judge quashed a citizen petition for a referendum on the basis the province didn’t fulfil the duty to consult.
The following week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the court ruling ‘erroneous’ and vowed to appeal it, while announcing the separation question was being added to the existing referendum on immigration and the Constitution.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press and Karen Bartko, Global News
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