Manitoba’s Elijah Harper, who had fought for Indigenous rights that he felt had been ignored when Canada’s First Ministers crafted the Meech Lake Accord, took to his feet in the House of Commons to deliver his maiden address on this date in 1994. A Liberal, he had been elected under Jean Chrétien’s banner in the October 1993 federal election.
“We shared the land and resources of this country from which many people have benefited all over the world,” he told his fellow MPs. “How generous and how kind we have been to the rest of this country. What kind of benefits have we received so far? Look at the situation in Davis Inlet or in my home at Red Sucker Lake. We have poor housing conditions. We do not have running water. We do have unemployment rates higher than in the cities. I am sure that if unemployment reaches 20 per cent it is a national disaster across the country, but it is 90 per cent in many of these communities. Nobody cries about those kinds of conditions.”
It was, indeed, a powerful speech. You can read Harper’s address in full at this link: https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC3501_03/801
