Native American voting rights—Canada

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: The special rights granted to Native Canadians by treaties and by the various Indian Acts of Parliament were long given as reasons to deny the ballot and other citizenship rights to Canada’s native population

The history of native voting rights in Canada is linked to government attempts to use the Indian Acts and other forms of coercion to assimilate Native Canadians into white society. These attempts were unsuccessful; most Canadian natives remained disenfranchised until 1960. Prior to confederation in 1867, there had been some isolated instances in which Indians in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia voted, but because of restrictive voter qualifications, Indians were, by and large, barred from the polls. After confederation, Indians were prevented from voting both by statute and by requirements of residence or property ownership.

The Indian Acts, the British North America Act, and various treaties established clear distinctions between natives and non-natives, providing both benefits to and restrictions on natives. The treaties obligated the government to pay annuities to all Indians. One of the most valued benefits of the Indian Act of 1876 was exemption from taxation for any Indian living on a reserve. This exemption prevented the complete loss of Indian lands through forfeiture, but it also prevented Indians from obtaining full citizenship rights in Canada.

The Indian Acts provided a mechanism for Indians to become Canadian citizens: enfranchisement. Indians who were deemed to be of good moral character, who could read and write French or English, and who were free of debt could apply for enfranchisement. Choosing to become enfranchised, however, meant giving up all the benefits of Indian status, including the right to live on reserve land, annuity payments, and exemption from taxation. It was in the interest of the government to enfranchise as many Indians as possible, and enfranchisement was a stated goal of the Indian Acts. Few Indians, however, opted for enfranchisement. Between 1867 and 1920, only 102 individuals did so. A 1920 amendment to the Indian Act made it possible for the superintendent general for Indian affairs to enfranchise people involuntarily, and activists were sometimes threatened with the stripping of their Indian status. One noted example of this is the case of Frederick Ogilvie Loft, who founded the League of Indians of Canada in 1918. Loft lobbied for Indian civil rights, including Indian control of band funds and the right to vote. In an effort to silence him, the Department of Indian Affairs informed Loft that it was considering his enfranchisement. The League of Indians ultimately floundered, but not before the involuntary enfranchisement provisions of the Indian Act were repealed when the Liberals assumed control of Parliament in 1921.

The Elected Councils

At the same time that natives were barred from voting in provincial and federal elections, they were forced to elect band councils and chiefs. Claiming to provide Indians with modern institutions of local government, Parliament passed the Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The act forbade traditional methods of leadership selection and imposed municipal-type councils on Indian bands. As in non-native elections of this time, this limited franchise was extended only to men. For the members of the Six Nations (Iroquois Confederacy), whose leaders were traditionally chosen by women, this was a supreme violation of their sovereign rights. Many bands resisted the interference of the Ottawa in local politics and continued to choose leaders by traditional methods or to elect the traditional leaders. The statute was relaxed in 1880 to make elected band councils voluntary, but passage of the Indian Advancement Act in 1884 made them mandatory once again. The 1884 act also permitted the superintendent general or his agent to depose any chief or council member deemed unfit to serve. Thus, although Indians were required to elect leaders, they were often denied the leaders that they had chosen.

The Franchise Act of 1885

For the first eighteen years after confederation there were no federal election laws in Canada. Voter eligibility was determined by provincial statutes, which barred Indians from the polls on either racial or class grounds. The Conservative government of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald introduced the Franchise Act in 1885, which established the first federal criteria for the franchise. Careful to preserve the rights of the wealthy, Macdonald’s legislation established strict property ownership guidelines for voters. Looking for likely Conservative voters, Macdonald extended the franchise to Indian men living on reserves in Eastern Canada if they possessed and occupied a distinct tract of land valued in excess of $150. It appears that many eligible Indians feared that this was merely a scheme to deprive them of their exemption from taxation and thus dispossess them of their land. Macdonald responded that they need have no such fear. Voting privileges for Indians were short-lived, however; the Liberals, led by Wilfred Laurier, gained power in 1896 and repealed the Franchise Act. No separate federal franchise was reestablished until 1920. Indians living on reserves were barred from voting.

Since 1917

Large numbers of Indians enlisted in the Canadian armed forces during World War I. In recognition of their service, Indian veterans were granted the vote in 1917 along with all other members of the armed forces and non-Indian women who had male relatives in the armed forces. The franchise was extended to all white women the following year.

Then, in 1920, while specifically excluding Indians living on reserves, the federal government did grant the franchise to Metis. There were no major changes in native Canadian access to the polls until after World War II. The wives of Indian veterans were granted the vote in 1948. In 1950, Indians who waived their immunity from taxation were permitted to vote. That same year the Inuit were granted the franchise on the grounds that they were not deemed wards of the state, nor were they exempt from taxation. It was not until 1960 that all native Canadians, regardless of status or residence, were permitted to vote in federal elections.

The ten provinces and two territories of Canada varied considerably with regard to native voting rights. British Columbia granted the franchise to native residents in 1949. Newfoundland permitted Indians and Inuit to vote when it entered the confederation that same year. Manitoba granted the vote to Indians in 1952, followed by Ontario in 1954. The franchise was extended to the Indians of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories in 1960 and to those in Prince Edward Island and in New Brunswick three years later. Quebec withheld voting privileges from Indians until 1969. Although there were never any specific proscriptions against Indian enfranchisement in Nova Scotia or the Yukon Territory, requirements of residency or property effectively kept Indians from the polls until the middle of the century.

Bibliography

Bartlett, Richard H. “Taxation.” In Aboriginal Peoples and the Law: Indian, Metis, and Inuit Rights in Canada. Edited by Bradford W. Morse. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1985.

Garner, John. The Franchise and Politics in British North America, 1755-1867. Ottawa: University of Toronto Press, 1969.

Satzewich, Vic, and Terry Wotherspoon. First Nations: Race, Class, and Gender Relations. Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada, 1993.

Titley, E. Brian. A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986.

Ward, Norman. The Canadian House of Commons, Representation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950.