Ex-councillor urging natives to run for office

Fri Jun 16 2006 By Mary Agnes Welch

THE city's first aboriginal city councillor is on a crusade to find more native candidates willing to run in this fall's civic election. If he can't, George Munroe says he may just run again himself.
Munroe, a city councillor for a term in the early 1970s, said he's begun beating the bushes for young activists willing to run in the city's three inner-city seats -- Daniel McIntyre, Mynarski and Point Douglas.

"I always kind of hoped that I opened the door for more aboriginal people to get involved in municipal politics but we kind of dropped the ball there," said Munroe, who is now active with the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg. "We keep recycling the same old people time and time again. I'm hoping some young person with enthusiasm and passion will throw their hat in the ring."

There are at least 60,000 aboriginal people in Winnipeg and Munroe said they need a voice at city hall, especially since many councillors tend to worry most about business interests and the suburbs.

He also said city hall deals directly with panhandling, gangs and drugs -- visible problems many Winnipeggers associate with aboriginal people but that don't necessarily reflect the progress they've made.

Former St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal, who is Metis, is expected to attempt to recapture his old seat. Chris Henderson, now the grand chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization, ran for mayor four years ago but won just 3.5 per cent of the vote.

Young, aboriginal activists eyeing future political careers include Maeengan Linklater, who works for the Urban Native Housing Association and ran unsuccessfully for school trustee four years ago, and Aboriginal Council board member Don Smith.

Nahanni Fontaine, director of justice for the Southern Chiefs Organization, has also thought often of running for council, though she said she's daunted by the obstacles.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca