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rfmcdonaldElijah Harper, a Canadian First Nations politician--specifically, a Manitoban of Cree background--whose vote against the Meech Lake Accords in 1990 helped bring First Nations issues to the forefront of Canadian constitutional issues, died today.
The soft-spoken former chief of the Ojibwa-Cree Red Sucker Lake Indian band in Manitoba was an NDP opposition member of the legislature when he prevented the accord from being ratified by Ottawa's deadline.
He said the deal, crafted to win Quebec's signature on the Constitution, ignored aboriginal rights. Last-minute scrambling by federal officials failed to appease Harper and other native leaders.
Brian Mulroney, who was prime minister at the time, was applying pressure on dissenting premiers to go along with the accord by approving it in their legislatures. Voting in Manitoba came late in the national debate.
Harper refused to allow legislature rules to be waived to speed debate of the resolution. He delayed it long enough to make it impossible to meet the deadline.
[. . .]
"I stalled and killed it because I didn't think it offered anything to the aboriginal people," Harper said simply of his decision.
[. . .]
He was the first status Indian elected to the Manitoba legislature where he served from 1981 to 1992. That included a two-year stint as minister of native affairs in former NDP premier Howard Pawley's cabinet. Harper's duties were interrupted briefly when he sought counselling for drunk driving.
Harper resigned from the legislature in 1992 and a year later left the New Democrats to run for the Liberals federally. He won a seat representing the sprawling northern Manitoba riding of Churchill.
