New Métis National Council president admits it could see funding cut, eyes 'unfinished business'

The newly elected president of the Métis National Council sits in a corner office in downtown Ottawa, with a fine view of the National War Memorial in the setting sun, and grapples with the obvious question — why?

Victoria Pruden takes over the organization amid major turbulence. It's sitting on a pivotal report about the status of Métis communities in Ontario and waging a civil trial against a previous administration, all while dealing with the recent withdrawal of two provincial affiliates. So why stand for election now?

"It wasn't without a lot of soul searching," says Pruden, a soft-spoken, Alberta-born politician with a diverse professional background.

But in the past, she adds, the Métis Nation would appoint certain leaders for a certain task at a specific time, as in the buffalo hunts of a bygone era.

"The messages that I'm getting are that I might just be that person to take on this really difficult job at this specific time in our history," she says.

"I care about the work that our governments do in support of our people, and I saw some of these really challenging pieces as unfinished business."

In Pruden's vision, "the MNC has to evolve" and adapt, and she says a need for a national lens will always remain.

Even so, she confirms the organization could face federal funding cuts after the withdrawals of its Saskatchewan and British Columbia members, and she acknowledges a much-anticipated expert panel report on the legitimacy of six communities in Ontario may not even be released.

That's still to be decided by the remaining members, she says, which are just the Métis Nation of Ontario itself and the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, formerly the Métis Nation of Alberta.

As the only remaining founder from 1983, Alberta had 75 per cent of the delegates during Pruden's election last December, Ontario the rest. Critics have questioned how the MNC can legitimately operate, spend money, wage legal battles or purport to engage in national advocacy with its formerly five-member council reduced to two.

"No Metis leader, I think, would find that situation ideal," she says.

"However, someone had to stand and be able to keep the structure open."

She says her mandate is to determine what that future structure looks like, though she concedes it may be quite different.

"We're not doing the work on the same scale. There's no question that we're going to be, of course, I think, seeing a reduction in funding that's proportional, that's fair, that's ethical. And we have to sort out what that is going to look like."

Background in finance, nonprofit sector

She says she's well positioned to find solutions and heal. Describing herself as a proud Michif woman and mother, Pruden was born in Edmonton and grew up in nearby St. Albert, a city with deep Métis roots. 

When she was 12, the family moved to Saskatchewan, her father's home province, where she went to school in Swift Current before going to university at what was then called the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now First Nations University) at the University of Regina.

She fondly recalls her childhood in Alberta as surrounded by Métis friends and family, but describes those teenage years in Saskatchewan as difficult.

"Sometimes the kinds of overt racism and hatred experienced by people, Metis people and Indigenous people, in Saskatchewan can be tough. It can be dangerous, and especially for women and girls," she says.

From there her family moved to Vancouver, where she eventually became involved in provincial Métis politics. Before that, she worked for several years as a bank manager and commercial lender, having started her post-secondary education in finance.

She then transitioned into the non-profit sector, soon joining the Métis Nation B.C. as a director in many portfolios, with a focus on supporting women, children and families. Eventually, she was elected as the MNBC's women's chairperson.

She says that experience has given her "a nice synergy" to take on her current role, vowing to remain connected with grassroots people and elders. She says the years of division among Métis leaders left her disillusioned, promising to promote "lateral kindness in politics" instead.

But she inherits a lawsuit against former MNC political leaders and consultants that alleges they conspired to harm the council before the Manitoba Métis Federation withdrew in 2021. The defendants all deny the allegations, and the defence is presently midway through its case. 

The lawsuit is far from lateral kindness, and although trying to strike a diplomatic tone, Pruden says she has a duty to uphold the principles that underpin the lawsuit, adding that a calculated decision was made to devote resources to the case.

"We hope that this is not a wasted exercise and that we're successful," she says.