One word keeps coming up as Lawrence Joseph discusses his ambition to represent northern Saskatchewan in Ottawa.
“Inclusion. That’s the big thing right now that I’m looking at,” he says.
Joseph, the Liberal MP candidate for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, believes the riding is the victim of a top-down federal approach.
“[People] need to have their voices heard and actually have their member of parliament present at their meetings and at their discussions,” he says, “and take their issues to Ottawa, and not the other way around.”
Joseph pledges a different tack, and although he is no die-hard partisan, he believes the Liberals represent the riding’s best hope this election.
“The Liberal Party of Canada has talked about inclusion of the North, northern Saskatchewan, and also being able to make the time to sit down with leaders, the mayors and the leaders of the Métis community and also the First Nations,” he says. “That’s a pledge that I’m going to hold them to, and then from there we can actually pull together northern Saskatchewan for future developments.”
Joseph, who hails from Big River First Nation, is not new to politics. For 21 consecutive years he has held some form of elected office.
He served as vice chief and then chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN). While chief of FSIN, he concurrently served as a regional chief with the Assembly of First Nations.
Joseph has also served on Prince Albert city council and the Prince Albert public school board, and held positions with charities such as the United Way.
“When I do run … it’s [about] service to the community at all times, and that’s my motivation,” he says.
Joseph is further motivated to improve the impoverished conditions in which he himself grew up while on the Big River First Nation, northwest of Prince Albert.
“You talk about the epitome of poverty. That’s where I come from,” he says, adding the experience of extreme poverty “never leaves you.”
Asked how Ottawa can help alleviate poverty in northern Saskatchewan, Joseph says he believes the solution lies in the riding’s people and businesses joining forces to work together.
What doesn’t work, he says, is having the government “prescribe what’s good for the North.”
In the last federal election, in 2011, Joseph, then running for the NDP, came within 795 votes of taking Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River from Conservative Rob Clarke. Joseph believes he would have won had more of his supporters turned out.
This time around he’s optimistic not only about his chances regionally, but of the Liberals’ chances federally.
Joseph says the NDP does not offer a strong alternative to the governing Conservatives. As an example, he says the NDP’s pledge to boost the federal minimum wage is “not real,” as it would benefit only a small percentage of federally regulated workers.
“If people are looking for a positive change in government, I do believe, personally, that the Liberal Party of Canada would be the best to actually pin our hopes on,” Joseph says.
At 70, Joseph reports being in good health as he works as a consultant for Big River First Nation.
The federal election is on Monday, October 19. The Reminder will continue to profile candidates in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River and the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski.
