Breaking Trail

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

When Len Marchand took his seat in Canada’s House of Commons in 1968
as its first elected aboriginal member, his people had been permitted to
vote in federal elections without giving up their special status for
only eight years. Non-Natives dominated the decision-making process that
regulated much of their lives, and the majority of Canadians were just
becoming aware of the many problems that aboriginal leaders had been
struggling to have recognized for generations. In this compelling
memoir, Marchand details the dramatic changes that followed him through
his life. He was in no small way breaking trail, as the title aptly
suggests.

Marchand was born in 1933 and grew up near Vernon, British Columbia,
expecting to be a farmer-rancher like his father. But a love of learning
started him on a different path. As it turned out, his life has
encompassed an important period in Canadian history for aboriginal
people. He skilfully communicates the experience of his generation (and
that of his parents) in such as way as to help today’s young people
appreciate the significance of the changes that have occurred. His
political career, from backbencher to senator, provides glimpses into
the process by which the Trudeau government (and others) introduced a
range of important new policies on aboriginal and other issues. Marchand
is justifiably proud of his accomplishments in politics and defends his
beliefs with conviction. It is a moderate perspective that is sometimes
lost among the more strident voices of aboriginal radicals who dominate
the public debate.

Marchand won his first election by talking informally at small coffee
parties—much as he wins over readers in this book. Quiet and
unassuming, Breaking Trail is ultimately a very effective (and moving)
glimpse into both the man and his times; it deserves to be widely read.