Prof Says Tories Get Unfair Rap On Native Issues

Prof Says Tories Get Unfair Rap On Native Issues

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 12:52

A professor at the University of Saskatchewan doesn’t think the Conservative Party gets enough credit for the work it does on Aboriginal issues.

Professor Greg Poelzer says prevailing thought is that Liberal governments are friendlier to First Nations and Metis.

But he says this isn’t the case.

Poelzer argues the governments of Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper have proven to be much more effective in resolving land claims — settling roughly the same amount of claims in less than half the time the Liberals have been in power.

Poelzer says agreements in Nunavut and the Yukon were also settled through the help of Conservative regimes.

He adds it was Joe Clark who proclaimed Canada a “community of communities”, while Pierre Trudeau championed central rule.