December 23, 1988 (34th Parliament, 1st Session)

Mr. Littlechild:

I believe I have a mandate, as we won more votes than all of the other six candidates combined.
Let me now address a matter of which I am particularly proud to mention. A small but important part of my constituency, 6 per cent in fact, includes the Four Nations of Hobbema. I am a member of the Ermineskin Tribe of Cree Indians in Hobbema.
During my first campaign, I referred to a quote by one of our country's greatest patriots, Chief Dan George, when he said:
Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up and go on. Like the thunderbird of old, I shall rise again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success-his education, his skills. With these new tools, I shall build my race into the proudest segment of your society. 1 shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the houses of law and government, ruling and being ruled by the knowledge and freedoms of our great land.
One of the great leaders of the Four Nations of Hobbema, Chief John Samson, started this dream along the path of reality in the early sixties when he hitchhiked here to Ottawa with Mr. Stan Daniels to bring native concerns to Canada's attention.
I would like to indicate that many of those concerns, for example as they relate to energy, health, agriculture and others, are very similar to areas outside of the Four Nations of Hobbema. I must, however, indicate to the House that I was dismayed, to put it politely and mildly, when anti-free traders came to our reserves. They came to scare our people, as they did in other areas, whether it was about social programs or sovereignty.