“The maximum, the minimum or something in between”: The Mi'kmaq and federal electoral legislation, 1899–1951

In 1899 the Department of Indian Affairs enacted legislation subjecting Native communities in Quebec and the Maritimes to a system of elected band councils. For over a half century, until the 1951 Indian Act created new electoral rules, the Mi'kmaq were subject to a three-year "triennial system" of band council elections. Modelled on the Canadas' colonial-era legislation, the triennial system was key to federal assimilation policy. Policy makers planned to replace Mi'kmaq political practices, which included life chieftainships and the Grand Council of lifetime chiefs, with electoral institutions. In pursuing this goal, they were only partially successful. This dissertation argues, based on a close reading of the primary sources, that adherence to triennial elections was far from universal. Shortcomings of Maritime Indian agencies, agents' lacking commitment to the program and Mi'kmaq opposition together undermined the federal plan. A few Mi'kmaq communities avoided the triennial system altogether. Others followed it imperfectly, accepting some tenets and rejecting others. Throughout the Maritimes Mi'kmaq political customs and structures were maintained and even strengthened in this period. When a Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons was struck to amend the Indian Act in 1946, Canada's Aboriginal peoples, including the Mi'kmaq, requested greater political autonomy. These requests went unheeded. Significantly, the 1951 electoral rules, based on the system imposed in 1899, were applied to the Mi'kmaq whose political practices had been influenced but not undermined by a half century of triennial elections.