Aboriginal people are proud to support Scott Brison for Liberal Leader

Aboriginal people are proud to support Liberal King-Hants MP, the Honourable Scott Brison as our next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

I have been an avid and excited supporter of Scott Brison since he announced his intention to seek the leadership of the Liberal party. In this somewhat difficult time for Liberals, Scott has provided an optimistic and bold vision for a Canada and a new generation of politics. Here is an e-mail I sent a few weeks ago expressing my support for Scott.

E-mail: As you may know I am supporting Scott Brison for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and hopefully Opposition Leader and then Prime Minister. I feel comfortable saying this because I know Scott Brison is committed to working to rebuild our party and putting the necessary hardwork and determination to create conditions for the Liberal party to take on Stephen Harper's disastrous government. I feel good about supporting him from a number of levels, as a Liberal, as a young Canadian and as a Westerner. I beleive he has the right combination of having a vision, knowing where to take our party and how to communicate with Canadians that is needed to be a national leader.

I have talked to Scott about his ideas and vision for the Liberal Party and I have no problem in stating that he is a true liberal who beleives in being socially progressive, economically innovative and environmentally responsible. Scott was re-elected twice as a Liberal in a very traditional conservative riding. He knows what it will takes to get more Aboriginal, Western and rural Liberal candidates elected. He also has the economic and progressive values that will engage urban Canadians. Brison has shown his commitment to our party by being a brave and firm Minister of Public Works when the party was going through a very difficult time (sponsorship). I watched him in the House of Commons day-after-day taking hits from the Conservatives about our party's integrity, Scott stood his ground and stared the Conservatives deep in the eyes and let them know that he was proud to be Liberal and would challenge any Conservative or NDP. Like he says we have to be more economically innovative then the Conservatives and more progressive then the NDP.

In terms of the leadership, I of course am a little biased, but I beleive if you go through the candidates websites and speeches, Scott has offered the most in terms of an Aboriginal agenda, dicussing how he will work to develop Aboriginal policy and work internally in the party to ensure the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission and Aboriginal Caucus play an central role. In collaboration and partnership with non-Liberal and Liberal Aboriginal leaders and individuals from across this country, the Brison campaign today revealed his Aboriginal Prosperity Agenda. Scott has worked with us to develop these policies and if elected leader of our party, he is committed to ensuring that Aboriginal people lead the discussion in developing ideas and solutions on how to engage challenges and opportunities.

Scott Brison is right when he says he represents a new generation of politics, I am happy to be part of a new generation of thinking that will renew the Liberal Party and earn the trust and confidence of Aboriginals and all Canadians.

If you go through all of the candidate's websites and google them, you will find that Brison has the most comprehensive Aboriginal policy and also recognizes the importance of the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission, the Liberal Aboriginal Caucus and Aboriginal members in general. Scott Brison has growing support amongst Aboriginal Liberals (or AborLiberals as my friend Cindy Woodhouse likes to say):

Prominent and Ex-Officio Aboriginal Liberal Supporters of Scott Brison
APC = Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission, the APC has a national body, as well as provincial and territorial associations.
Allan Adam, past provincial Liberal candidate, Saskatchewan
Ryan Buffalo, Vice-President (Youth), Alberta APC
T. J. Burke, (Aboriginal) MLA (Fredericton North), New Brunswick
George Cameron, past provincial Liberal candidate,Saskatchewan
Darcy Diachinsky, President, APC Saskatchewan
Autumn EagleSpeaker, President, Alberta APC
Joshua Fraser, National Vice-President (Youth), APC and Vice-President (Communications), Alberta APC
Ryan Francis, President, Nova Scotia APC
Sheila Keewatin-Musqua, Past National Vice President (Organization), APC
Irene Morin, Past APC National Co-chair
Don Ross, Past APC National Co-chair and Co-chair, 2003 Liberal Party of Canada Biennial Convention
Cindy Woodhouse, National Vice-President (Communications), APC and Vice President, APC Manitoba

Lets reform the LPC National Executive the right way

As most know the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) is going through a renewal and leadership process this year. It is a time for the party to find itself, regroup and decide where it is going and how it will get there. With the strength of the reunited Conservative party and weaknesses caused by the sponsorship program and being in government for 13 years, this is a crucial time for the Liberal party and it is absolutely essential that we get it right, the first time, if we don’t do thing right this time, we could be in the political wilderness (opposition) for quite awhile. We are fortunate that our nation doesn’t yet feel the full damage of what a Harper Conservative majority would do to this country. Although we already feel the implications of a Conservative minority, the loss of the Kelowna Accord and destruction of the Kyoto Treaty are two that most affect me.

In a recent article (July 7, 2006) Toronto Star columnist Susan Delacourt reported on a supposedly leaked document that included recommendations by the Red Ribbon Committee, a committee set up by the LPC National Executive to review the party structure. Based on the article, the recommendations included changing the size and composition of the LPC to be cut in half. Before I even discuss this, I would like to raise the fact that many in the party haven’t even been consulted, nor have they been asked for input. I find it funny that the Star would have this document and the President of the party would do an interview without first consulting many of the people these recommendations would affect. I am on the national executive of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission, we have three representatives of the LPC National Executive, far less then the Women’s, Young Liberals or Senior’s commissions, yet we have not been informed or consulted about any of these recommendations. I found it premature and unaccountable to approach restructuring the LPC from recommendations that come from the top-down. I am also of the understanding that there are no commission representatives on this Red Ribbon Committee, which is also disturbing.

Since then I have heard all sorts of rumors on the Liberal Blogs and from party members that they are going to get rid of the commission representatives or the commissions all together. I think that those involved with Red Ribbon would know the benefit having these commissions has for our party and I trust this is not a recommendation. If they want to start somewhere, I would get rid of the overlap of having regional representatives and the provincial and territorial association presidents and maybe scaling back the commission representatives to two per commission. Quite frankly, I do understand our need to have a youth, women’s and Aboriginal commission, but I never understood why we have a senior’s commission. It has been well documented that seniors are well represented, if not over-represented in our political institutions. Seniors get elected, go to the polls and have their policies well represented, so I don’t understand their usage.

I don’t understand how using the Conservative National Council model would benefit us, our model is designed to run our party effectively and engage as many people as possible. I don’t even understand the basis of the Conservative model, but I believe it’s based on province’s population with 4 seats for Ontario, 3 seats for Quebec, 2 for Alberta and B.C. and one for the rest of each of the provinces with the territories sharing three. When we look at the Liberal National Executive model rather then taking away commission representatives, we need to ask ourselves about the other committees, as it seems party staff and executive fulfill most of those responsibilities. If these committees are useful, then the power to utilize them to the fullest extent should be given back to the committees. I think that is one of the biggest problems, under-utilization of current commissions and bodies within the LPC.

In the article, it was also suggested one of the reasons we lost is because of our party size and structure. I would say quite the opposite to be true. As an active member in two of the commissions, I would state that they were not used to their fullest capacity. The problem with the party is we have all these great organizations and individuals who run for leadership of these organizations with great ideas, only to lose all of the power during elections to appointed un-elected party officials who call all the shots.

Apparently the recommendations of the Red Ribbon Committee will be coming out shortly, finally, to us in the party who are actually elected to represent the grassroots, so maybe we can actually have some input and say what we feel will best reflect the needs of our party. I would certainly not support any amendments to the constitution that disbanded the Young Liberal’s, Women’s or Aboriginal Peoples’ Commissions, I would however support fewer commission reps on the LPC National Executive, I think two per commission again is a balanced number. Without having this representation, the same thing can happen which happened with the Red Ribbon Committee, that is people above your making decisions that directly affect you, without having any input from your constituency group.

I know for myself and many Aboriginal and young Liberals, we would not have been this active in the party unless they had our respective commissions to engage us and be a conduit for our involvement.

Scott Brison for Liberal Leader

Time to get Blogging!

Well I have had this Blogsite for a few months now and have yet to post anything interesting yet. So here it goes.

My name is Joshua Fraser (www.joshfraser.ca), I am the Vice-President (Youth) of the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission of the Liberal Party of Canada. I am also the Aboriginal Representative on national executive of the Young Liberals of Canada. I am also active in the Alberta Young Liberals, Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta, Calgary Centre Constituency Association, Alberta APC and Mount Royal College Liberal association. I have been active in the party since 1999 when then Finance Minister Paul Martin met with a bunch of us young Aboriginal students in Calgary. He inspired me to get involved and I did, I ran for local positions, then provincial and at the 2003 Liberal Leadership Convention I was elected the national Vice-President (Youth) for APC, which I ran again and won at the 2005 convention.

Obviously I was and still am a very big fan of Paul Martin, though in retrospect I recognize many of the mistakes made by his close circle of advisors or the board as they called them. I used to tell people not to blame Paul, but I guess when people make you aware of these problems and you keep these people around you, you are responsible. Though I still have a lot of respect for the man and acknowledge that he was the best Prime Minister the Aboriginal (First Nation, Metis and Inuit) could ask for. He truly believed in helping Aboriginal people gain a more equal place in our society. He was a great friend to my people and we will always acknowledge his contributions.

I am now a proud supporter of Scott Brison and I am working with him to build the new generation of leaders in the Liberal party. I also like Ignateiff, Dion and Dryden respectively.