A 'force to be reckoned with'

Cara Currie Hall has always been politically active, even as a young kid. Her dad was chief of the Montana First Nation, as was her grandfather.

In 2007 she played an important role in Barack Obama’s campaign to get to the Oval Office. She began organizing the Indigenous vote in his presidential campaign, and helped him and his team make history.

She’s back in Canada and is helping to promote Rock the Indigenous Vote campaigns. Aboriginal voters, she noted, are a “force to be reckoned with."

“They've never been really expected to vote, and probably aren't considered in any of the polls that are being done,” she said in an interview with the CBC.

“We have the ability to swing this.”

Indigenous people in Canada aren’t known to vote in droves, but the current federal election has seen a shift in a lot of poeples’ priorities. Many who’ve never voted before are committing to do so because, this time around, it feels more important than it ever has before.

“The relationship is broken between Canada and the first people," Hall said. "We need to correct it today. We need to correct it now to make Canada stronger."

Check out Hall's full interview with CBC Radio’s Unreserved here.

Image source: aptn.ca