Party Leaders Dismiss Federal Government’s Work On Reconciliation

Failing to acknowledge any work being done on reconciliation by the federal government is disingenuous.

In professional sports, athletes have a saying, “game recognizes game.” Meaning, I recognize your accomplishments and appreciate the work you did for your city/country.

The candidates of the various parties campaigning to be Canada’s next Prime Minister could learn a thing or two from professional athletes about recognizing the accomplishments of the Prime Minister and the federal government for the last six years, especially when it comes to Indigenous issues.

Throughout the debates and along the campaign trail, Canadians are lead to believe there have been little to no progress made on Indigenous issues by Mr Singh, Mr O’Toole, Mrs Paul and Mr Blanchet when it comes to reconciliation with the Indigenous community.

When politicians start pandering to a base by saying anything to get elected, they are not ready to lead a country of 37.5 million Canadians. It is disingenuous for any politician to assign blame for Indigenous issues to one party.

Canada’s has only had Prime Minister from two parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals. They and all the other parties that are serving in the House of Commons owe a duty to Canada’s Indigenous people to make good and implement all of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

Reconciliation starts with acknowledging Canada’s ugly history towards its Indigenous people. We can start by doing the simple things by stop denying Canada’s first Prime Minister of the Conservative Party, Sir. John A Macdonald was one of the key architects of the creation of Canada’s Residential School System. A system designed to destroy the Indigenous way of life, culture and languages and “kill the Indian in every child.”

The notion of reconciliation has to be between nation to nation with the genuine intent of improving the lives of Canada’s Indigenous people. No other government has done more for reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous people than the Trudeau administration and there is still a lot more to be accomplished. These are well-documented facts.

For example, the Canadian government has lifted the boiled water advisory on 109 of 160 first nations communities by working with their leaders. Downplaying these initiatives by any party leader is disingenuous.

Clean drinking water is a human right. All previous administrations could have made sure Indigenous communities have the same water as the rest of Canada. More could have been done by the federal government to get clean drinking water flowing faster, but for the leaders to say nothing has been done, only looks to drive a further wedge between Canada’s federal government and its Indigenous community.

The mainstream media also needs to hold themselves accountable for not always correcting inaccurate statements by the politicians about the work of government, especially on issues of reconciliation.

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