Romeo Saganash wants to make Canadian history and become the first Indigenous person to lead one of the major political parties.
Getting there is going to be a tough climb in a leadership field that includes such names as Brian Topp and Thomas Mulcair, both considered the frontrunners in the early going in the NDP leadership race underway.
But the MP from Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou is undaunted by the polls and predictions and points as an example to a similar attitude he had when he first ran for parliament in the May 2 election.
"When I got to Val d'Or, the local media took great pleasure in reminding me that in the previous election the NDP only got 7.4 per cent," Saganash said of his campaign for MP.
"I said 'I know that. So what? I'm here to run anyway,'" said Saganash.
What ended up happening was the big "orange wave" that ended up sweeping Quebec in that election. Saganash ended up getting around 47 per cent of the vote in his northern riding to become one of Jack Layton's 59 NDP MPs from the province of Quebec.
The new MP says he has the same attitude in this leadership campaign and is running to win, not simply to be a voice for aboriginals in politics.
"I'm here to win this race," Saganash said.
As for the other candidates, "sure they're impressive people, and they have great talent and great experience. So do I."
Saganash, who turns 50 on the weekend - "as old as the NDP", he said - was born in the small northern community of Waswanipi, Que. He is a residential schools survivor who later went on to earn a law degree from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
While he is a rookie MP in Parliament, he is no stranger to politics and leadership roles, having founded the Cree Nation Youth Council in 1985 and later serving as deputy chief of the Grand Council of the Cree.
His campaign website touts his experience as one of the principal authors of La Paix des Braves, the landmark agreement between the James Bay Cree and the Government of Quebec, as well as his involvement in national and international initiatives including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which he helped to negotiate as a lawyer.
His campaign has already received early endorsements from fellow Quebec MPs Pierre Dionne Labelle and Christine Moore, as well as from many other supporters across the country.
He told reporters Tuesday he should be leader of the NDP "because I'm good at bringing people together, and I've done that for the past 25 years. It's working."
Saganash spoke about how he was inspired to run for parliament by the man he hopes to replace - former party leader Jack Layton, who died in August.
He said that he had been urged to run for the NDP as early as 2006 by Layton. Finally, when Layton called again in February of this year Saganash said, "I think I'm ready this time."
That decision led to a two-hour meeting with Layton in Toronto the next day. It was in that meeting where Saganash was persuaded to run in northern Quebec instead of Quebec City, where Saganash had been considering running.
"He said 'consider, Romeo - Romeo, you belong in the north. You belong with your people," Saganash recalled. "Consider all of the global challenges that we have on this planet today. Climate change. Environment protection. Resource development. Aboriginal peoples and the relations with aboriginal people. Water rights. You name them.'"
All of those challenges exist in Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou, Layton told Saganash. Saganash took the advice and said he's happy with his decision to run there.
The last conversation he had with Layton was on the subject of reconciliation, said Saganash - something he says he is bringing to his own campaign.
Saganash was in the Battlefords Tuesday as part of his tour of the province during the NDP leadership race. During his visit he was not only promoting his own campaign but also lending support to the area's NDP candidates running in the Nov. 7 provincial election.
He spent Monday in Saskatoon where he met with NDP activists and later canvassed in Saskatoon Riversdale with NDP MLA Danielle Chartier. Saganash also did some campaigning with candidate Clay DeBray in Rosthern-Shellbrook that day.
Tuesday he was in North Battleford at Len Taylor's campaign office where he met the media and party faithful. He was joined at that event by Taylor and by Bernadette Gopher, NDP candidate in Cut Knife-Turtleford.
Saganash then followed that visit with a tour of several First Nations communities in the area, including Little Pine First Nation and Sweetgrass First Nation, before taking his campaign to Meadow Lake. There was scheduled to spend the next couple of days at campaigning with local candidate Helen Ben, before he heads back to his riding this weekend.
The leadership candidate expects he will have travelled to most regions of Canada by time Christmas. Saganash said he plans to take his campaign to the Maritimes next week.
To win the race, he plans to "meet with grassroots people across the country. I've been at this over a month now, and it's going to continue, bringing new members in."
He notes it's quite a challenge especially in Quebec where the party's federal membership numbers are still low compared to the rest of the country. "It's a greater challenge in Quebec to get new members, and that's what I'm been focusing on as well."
He also wants to encourage greater participation and voter turnout by aboriginals across the country from what it has been in the past. He plans to keep meeting First Nations peoples and encouraging their involvement in the campaign.
"They need to participate in the democratic institutions in this country if they want to have their say," said Saganash, noting the big decisions made in places like Ottawa, New York, Japan and China also affect them.
He adds that his own Cree background is not the most important thing when he makes his pitch to Aboriginal voters for support.
"I'm not asking the Cree to vote for me because I'm Cree. I'm asking the Cree to vote for me because of what I stand for."
Saganash's Saskatchewan tour coincides with an eventful week in the NDP leadership race with another contender, Parkdale-High Park MP Peggy Nash, expected to announce her intentions Friday.
That would mean at least seven candidates in the field of hopefuls leading up to the March 2012 leadership vote, in which all NDP members across the country will be eligible to vote.
It promises to be a hectic next several months for Saganash.
"I basically have two jobs now - one as an MP for the second largest riding in this country, it's half of the province of Quebec land mass, so it's a huge riding, and I need to continue the work I have to do in my riding. But the other job's to campaign, to meet people, get new members across this country and get the people to know me better."
