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Tim Powers of The Globe reports today that the Conservative candidate for the federal riding of Labrador “will likely be Peter Penashue,” a seat he’ll have to wrest from Liberal incumbent Todd Russell.

While obviously more common within Indigenous communities, this Aboriginal-vs.-Aboriginal contest is a relative rarity in federal Canadian political circles.

Powers opines that the former head of the Innu Nation of Labrador faces “a huge uphill battle” in trying to unseat Russell, as “Labrador has only elected a Conservative once since Confederation.”

That said, Powers speculates, “maybe the electorate in the Labrador riding will punish Mr. Russell for his opposition to the Lower Churchill project … [which] the Innu of Labrador support.” The columnist also claims Penashue was helpful in achieving the Innu’s recent land-claim settlement (yet to be ratified by its members).

Are there any other brown-on-brown battles shaping up this election that you’re aware of? Send ’em MI’s way.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim Fontaine’s excellent breakdown of the (thus far) 25 Aboriginal candidates running for the 4 national parties (and none for the Bloc Québécois), we now know that five federal races feature more than one Indigenous candidate. In fact (as Pundits’ Guide also commented here), one northern Saskatchewan riding is particularly remarkable in this regard: there, all four candidates are Indigenous, including the incumbent.

Despite millions upon millions of dollars supposedly going toward clean drinking water for First Nations, monies spent by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) seem to have largely come up dry.

Between April 2006 and March 2010, the department allocated apx. $1.25 billion to water and waste water infrastructure. But according to documents received from Health Canada – which monitors drinking water quality – the problem seems no closer to being fixed.

Obtained through an Access to Information (ATI) Request, the documents reveal that, of the 633 First Nations communities in Canada, 117 are under drinking water advisories as of Jan. 14 – i.e, 18 per cent, close to 1 in 5 communities. One advisory extends as far back as 1995, while another affects 1,041 community members.

First Nation communities are dealing with problems such as waterborne contaminants, inadequate disinfectants, unacceptable bacteriological results, and traces of E. coli in their drinking water systems.

Based on these ATI documents, the following regions had drinking water advisories (in descending order);

• Ontario: 36 communities
• Pacific: 28 communities
• Alberta: 25 communities
• Saskatchewan: 14 communities
• Atlantic: 11 communities
• Quebec: 2 communities
• Manitoba: 1 community

As one of the 117 communities dealing with unsafe, unclean and unreliable drinking water, Constance Lake First Nation in northeastern Ontario (pop’n 1,477) has been under a boil water advisory since July 2010.

But Arthur Moore, Chief of this Oji-Cree community, claims it has been much longer: “For the last ten years, it’s been a regular occurrence for the community to be under a boil water advisory.”

Recently informed by INAC that the community’s water now meets all proper standards, Constance Lake members feel otherwise.

“The water is brown due to high levels of iron,” said Chief Moore. “For now, members are continuing to use bottled water for hygiene purposes until our water treatment plan meets all safety standards.”

Linda Duncan is a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament and a vocal critic of Canada’s approach to drinking water in First Nation communities.

Duncan wrote a book to help First Nation communities deal with government when it comes to water issues. She feels environmental health quality is not a priority for the rest of the country.

“There is a bigger problem,” she says. “We don’t have legally binding national drinking standards for anyone in Canada. There is no reason why First Nation communities should have different quality of water than any other community in Canada.”

There has been a push for a separate piece of legislation, Bill C-11: The Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act. Introduced in Parliament in May 2010, it was hoped Bill C-11 would address the regulatory gaps that affect First Nation communities.

While the Bill has just been killed by the fall of the government, Senator Patrick Brazeau believed it was the answer.

“The Conservative government has been the only government to focus on providing safe and clean water in the history of Canada as it pertains to First Nations people,” claims Senator Brazeau.

Even though Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario has been under an advisory since 1995, Brazeau remains optimistic.

“The number is high, but at least it lets us know that water is being tested, which is a positive thing,” he says. “It is a long time (for Neskantaga First Nation), but obviously there is some on-going work that continues to be done.”

According to Senator Brazeau, First Nations are not the only communities dealing with water advisories.

“There are water boil advisories in non-native communities,” he says.“In a perfect world, we would like zero boil water advisories. But, it’s an ongoing problem all across Canada.”

A sentiment likely not shared by the many First Nations who are afraid of what comes out of their taps.

UPDATE: Here are the original documents disclosed from Health Canada through an Access to Information request. These documents show the number of First Nations Communities with water drinking advisories as of December 31, 2010, validated by regions.

Access to Information Water Advisories [ Photo courtesy of The Legion of Decency ]

With a spring federal election a distinct possibility as the reigning minority Conservative government faces defeat by the opposition, there’s no time like the present to start prognosticating about MPs’ prospects for re-election.

I am particularly interested in those races where the Aboriginal vote could play a key role by virtue of their numbers. And few would be more interesting or potentially consequential than the contest that would unfold in the BC riding of Vancouver Island North.

That’s because Vancouver Island North is represented by none other than current Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John ‘No Race-based Fishery’ Duncan. And last time around, the Honourable member and rookie Cabinet minister just barely eked out a victory for his party over his closest rival, as seen by these CBC election results from 2008:

PARTY	Candidate	# of Votes	% of Total Votes Cast
Conservative	John Duncan	26,166	45.78
New Democrat	Catherine Bell	23,681	41.43
Green	Philip Stone	4,563	7.98
Liberal	Geoff Fleischer	2,391	4.18
Independent	Jason Draper	361	0.63

As you can see, a total of 57,162 votes were cast in the last election in Duncan’s riding, a race he won by just 2,485 votes, or apx. four per cent more than the second-place NDP candidate. Here’s the thing: Aboriginal people make up 9% of that riding, or up to double the margin of victory.

In 2008, there were 88,077 electors on Elections Canada’s list for the district. According to a Nov. 2010 piece in the Georgia Straight,

In Duncan’s riding of Vancouver Island North, which the Conservatives won by less than 2,500 votes in 2008, there were 10,065 residents of aboriginal descent. This is according to a page compiled by Statistics Canada.

Even if we assume half of that total Aboriginal population in this riding is of voting age, that’s still 5,033 people — more than enough to cancel out the 2,485 votes it took to get Duncan into office, should they vote as a bloc.

In other words, it could be Indians who hold the fate of the Indian Affairs minister in their hands.

And before anyone else says it, I am well aware that my headline is technically misleading, in that Indians may not actually get to ‘pick’ the next Indian Affairs minister, but, should they decide to collectively exercise their electoral muscle (not to be confused with pectoral muscle), they sure as hell will get to veto the current one. Call it the first shot fired across the bow by the brown baby boom. (I also acknowledge I am substituting ‘Indians’ for all Aboriginal people in the riding, essentially for poetic license. A more exact number-crunching needs to be done.)

Now, of course, I’d be the last person to assume that every Indian opposes the Conservative party: indeed, some are proudly card-carrying members. All I’m concerned with here is what I find to be something of a delicious irony: that, for once, Indians will get the chance to say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ to whoever lords over them as minister of their ‘Affairs.’ True, it’d be a symbolic (and, some might say, mostly-hollow) victory, but if nothing else, it could send a message as to what we think of what’s being done on our collective behalf. And if it starts to awaken us to our voting power if and when we do act as a bloc, that might not be such a bad thing either.

And so, enemies of the current office-holder of the Indian Affairs department, you now have the means of initiating a “Dump Duncan” campaign.

Friends of Duncan, you should now be aware of what you could be up against should you wish to protect your recently installed Captain of the Indian Industry. Proceed accordingly.