'Indigenous reconciliation' at rock bottom of B.C. voter priorities - National Post

A smudging ceremony is performed on Premier David Eby in September 2025. Photo by Photo by Jason Payne/ PNGArticle contentFirst Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Despite its relative dominance of B.C. political discourse in recent years, a new poll finds that “Indigenous reconciliation” ranks at the very bottom of voter priorities.

Earlier this month, Ipsos polled British Columbians on their top political priorities.

At the very top of the list – for both NDP and B.C. Conservative supporters – was the issue of “cost of living/inflation,” followed closely by “health care” and “housing affordability.”

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Channel Israel will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

At the botton was “reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.” Just three per cent of respondents said it was something they wanted to see “provincial leaders address in British Columbia.”

The only less popular issue was the somewhat esoteric category of “energy issues,” which came in at just two per cent.

Article contentAnd reconciliation as a last place political priority was pretty consistent across demographics, with men, women, seniors and youth all marking it either dead last, or second to dead last.

The only cohort who felt differently were supporters of the B.C. Green Party. Among Greens, 12 per cent thought “reconciliation” was worthy of political attention.

These views aren’t all that different from the last time B.C. went to the polls.

An Ipsos poll from 2024 similarly found “reconciliation with Indigenous peoples” ranking at the very bottom of the B.C. voters policy priorities.

Nevertheless, reconciliation has dominated the interim two years of B.C. politics, with the province finding itself at the sharp end of some of the most potent reconciliation-based policy in the country.

This most notably includes DRIPA, a piece of 2019 legislation that encoded the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People into B.C. law.