The Métis nation, I would say. The Chippewa we could argue about. The Republic of Iceland and the Republic of Manitoba, we can't argue about.
The question was:
Winnipeg Free Press: "Which four First Nations live in Manitoba?"
Shit Pallister Could Have Said:
"MB First Nations include the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, and Dene. The Inuit and Métis are also MB indigenous peoples."
What kind of shit is this:
So the Winnipeg Free Press slipped a few serious questions into an otherwise light-hearted pre-election questionnaire. Apparently Pallister couldn't tell the difference. (The other candidates figured it out, mind you, and attempted actual answers to this question.)
But not Pallister! No, sir. Pallister chooses to laughingly make fun of the very concept of First Nations by listing two short-lived European settler governments, and referring to the "Chippewa"—meaning Dene or Anishinaabe in less colonial language, depending—as "arguable" whatever the hell *that* means. Given the attempted genocide of the Sayisi Dene, you'd think he might be a little more careful about his words.
And he's a former critic of Indian Affairs by this point, so you'd think he might have a clue about both who the First Nations are and why this is all just colossally insulting.
Oh, and to address the inevitable "it's just a joke duh" defence—only in a colonizing, white-supremacist world view is this answer in any way funny. Is straight-up racism now hilarious?
My jaw is on the goddamn floor here, people. I can't even. What the friggin hell?