Green Party candidate focuses on Great Lakes

For 15 years, Natasha Akiwenzie and her husband relied on Lake Huron’s fish, selling fresh, frozen and smoked Georgian Bay fish at local markets. Their dream was to pass the business to their three sons — but by 2018, declining lake whitefish populations and increasingly unpredictable weather due to climate change made their business unsustainable.

“We always said we’d stop fishing if there was ever a problem with the fish,” she said. “We had no idea that would actually happen in our lifetime.”

Now, Akiwenzie is the Green Party candidate for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound in the 2025 federal election. 

A member of the Lac Seul First Nation from northwestern Ontario, she is running to protect the Great Lakes and surrounding wildlands, while using community knowledge to support climate adaptation.

Commercial whitefish harvests in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay have dropped by more than half since the 1990s, mostly due to invasive zebra and quagga mussels and warmer water temperatures. These changes have impacted both Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers. 

The couple stopped fishing and co-founded Bagidi’waad Alliance, a non-profit focused on climate research, education and land and water stewardship in the Lake Huron-Georgian Bay area. Bagidi’waad means: “they set a net” in Anishinaabemowin and was created to bring attention to climate change and the decline of lake whitefish in the region.

One of the organization's flagship programs, Aki Guardians, trains youth as Indigenous guides, teaching skills like geographic information systems (a tool for mapping and analyzing land and water) photography and communication. It encourages discussions on climate change, bringing Indigenous elders to share their knowledge and personal stories about the changes they’ve seen over their lifetime.

Akiwenzie is also executive director of the Gidakiinaan Land Trust, which focuses on conserving land and protecting species at risk in the Great Lakes watershed, many of which are central to Indigenous ways of life, such as  Lake Whitefish and Woodland caribou. The trust, founded a year ago, is working toward charitable status.

The request for Akiwenzie to run for office came last year. “I remember hemming and hawing, and I remember my birth mother telling me, ‘If not you, then who?’” she said. 

She stepped up because the party’s values aligned with her own, and the Greens would allow her to vote independently, addressing issues in a way that prioritized the community over party agendas.

Her top three priorities while running for the Green Party are: first, protecting the Great Lakes from declining fish populations and invasive species like zebra mussels. Second, preserving wild lands so future generations have clean air, water and natural habitats. Third, helping people adapt to climate change through nature-based solutions, like planting trees and habitat rehabilitation.

Akiwenzie is also working to help fishing families adapt as traditional industries decline. Many have spent their whole lives on the water, with plans to pass their fishing livelihoods down to their children. She wants to help them adapt by using the skills they already have, like fixing small engines, mending nets and knowing how to fish — skills that are rarely taught or appreciated today, she said.

She hopes to create spaces for knowledge-sharing through workshops and community events. “We’re gonna have to get very creative in how to ensure that they’re able to still do the traditional practices if they’re not able to be out on the water,” Akiwenzie said.

Many community members feel unheard when they notice changes on the land and don’t know who to tell. She plans to sit down with them, document those concerns and make sure they are taken seriously. Using the OCAP principles — Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, developed by First Nations to guide data collection and sharing, she aims to bring elders, land users, researchers and politicians to the same table, as each sees the land in a different way.

Other confirmed candidates in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound include Alex Ruff, the incumbent Conservative MP, Anne Marie Watson from the Liberal Party, Chris Neudorf of the NDP, Pavel Smolko representing the People’s Party of Canada and Ann Gillies from the United Party.

Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer