“Status Indians” are granted the right to vote

March 10, 2017

John Diefenbaker being named Chief Walking Buffalo by Chief Little Crow of the Sioux Nation, May 1959. Saskatchewan Government Photographic Services, University of Saskatchewan Archives, MG01/XVII/JGD3451

March 10, 1960

Since Confederation, Indigenous Canadians had been allowed to vote only if they gave up their claims to land and resources agreed to in treaties between First Nations and the Crown, a process known as losing status. That changed on March 10, 1960, when John Diefenbaker’s new government passed a law granting “Status Indians” an unconditional right to vote. Passed almost unanimously by the House of Commons, it marked the end of the last Canadian voting restriction based on race or religion.

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