Nelson Contois

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Nelson Contois is a Manitoba politician. In 1995, he was the leader of a short-lived political party known as Independent Native Voice, focusing on the issues of Manitoba's aboriginal population. Subsequently, Contois and two other INV candidates were implicated in a vote-splitting scandal involving leading figures in the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party.

Contois became active in Manitoba's aboriginal politics during the 1960s, and at different times worked for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood, the Western Regional Tribal Council, the Pine Creek First Nation and the Waterhen First Nation. He also promoted projects involving housing construction, elk ranching and environmentally-friendly waste treatment on aboriginal reserves. In the latter capacity, he met a tradesman named Jerry Sorokowski, who was a friend of local Tory organizer Allan Aitken.

Contois would later claim that he created the INV in 1995 following a conversation with Sorokowski. He also discussed the matter with Aitken, who provided Contois with various forms of assistance (such as obtaining the papers for Contois's registration as a candidate, drafting the party's campaign literature, and preparing signs). Aitken would later argue that he was simply encouraging "more participation" in the democratic process.

Contois also claimed that he personally recruited Darryl Sutherland to run for the INV, although he had not actually met him at the time. Sutherland, by contrast, claims that he was recruited by Aitken and Cubby Barrett, another Tory organizer.

There were three INV candidates in the 1995 provincial election -- Contois, his daughter Carey, and Sutherland. All ran in ridings with large aboriginal populations in the mid-northern part of the province. Since the late 1960s, the aboriginal vote in these ridings had gone overwhelmingly for the NDP. A third party group representing aboriginal issues, as such, had the potential to divide the aborginal vote and deliver the ridings to the Progressive Conservatives. Subsequently, evidence would emerge to show that Progressive Conservative organizers had conspired to attain this end.

During the 1995 campaign, Allan Aitken received $600 from a high-ranking Progressive Conservative organizer named Taras Sokolyk. He subsequently donated $498 of this sum to the Contois candidacies. On April 11, 1995, Aitken asked for official reimbursement from Sokolyk for his role in the electoral campaign, and received a $4000 payment from Progressive Conservative Party's official funds. (Sokolyk later argued that this was simply a reimbursement for Aitken's work on the local Tory campaign, though many doubt this explanation.)

During the course of the campaign, the Contoises also affiliated with the First Peoples Party, a separate organization which was not involved in the vote-splitting scandal. The FPP, led by Jerry Fontaine, provided the Contoises with additional funding for signs and campaign paraphernalia. Sutherland, who was becoming disillusioned with his role in the INV by this time, did not join in this effort.

Nelson Contois ran in the riding of Swan River and received 118 votes, finishing last among four candidates. The winning candidate, Rosann Wowchuk of the NDP, defeated her Tory opponent by only 32 votes. A stronger campaign by Contois would almost certainly have delivered the riding to the Progressive Conservatives.

In 1998, the details of the vote-splitting controversy emerged as a major political scandal. A provincial inquiry came to the conclusion that local conservative interests had induced Sutherland to run a vote-splitting campaign; Sokolyk, moreover, admitted to his role in funding the INV. It was not proven that the Contoises were induced to run by Tory interests, though suspicions remain.

Nelson Contois continues to deny that he was commissioned to run a vote-splitting campaign. He does not appear to have been politically active since the scandal emerged.