Why I Vote: Merelda Fiddler
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As part of our coverage of the 2015 Federal Election, we are asking Indigenous people in this province to tell us “Why I Vote.” These are the unedited words from our interviewees. You can find more in our
Interviews section
.
Merelda Fiddler, mother and journalist
Did you vote in the last federal election?
I did vote in the
last federal election, and the provincial one and the city elections.
Will you be voting in this election?
I will most
definitely be voting in the upcoming election.
What is the most important issue to you this election?
There’s not just one
issue for me. For instance, as a person who can see climate change it’s the
environment. As a mother it’s health care and education. Addressing poverty is
also very big for me. And then of course there’s justice. All of these things
and many more matter.
Why is it important for Indigenous people to vote?
Here are the two
things I always think of when i think about voting. 1. Veterans. My own relatives
who fought in the war and ALL veterans. They fought for the rights we often
take for granted. They fought so we can have the right to have a say in our
country’s future. It’s not a perfect place but we don’t realize how lucky we
are.
Second – when I was
working on a documentary years ago a Metis man said to me – “people tell
me all the time they are not political. I don’t understand that everything in
your life is political.”
That goes back to
the previous question – if we were all more engaged in our education, health
etc maybe we could really make the difference we all keep looking to others to
do for us.
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