Many of my articles come from comments by different people or things they have sent me by e-mail.

Most topics are near and dear to their hearts and I often ask why they don’t write a letter to the editor and state their point of view.

There are many and varied reasons or excuses why they don’t but appreciate it when they read about the topic in one of my columns.

Here is one that was sent to me and it reflects many comments made to me even before I had the opportunity to voice my views in the local paper.

This one touches the fibre of our community and the makeup of the people in it.

What follows are comments made by a person named Chief Clarence Louie. He is, fortunately, aboriginal himself.

According to Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail said he is seen, increasingly, as one of the most interesting and innovative native leaders in the country and yet he avoids politics at least at the provincial or federal level.

If anyone else made comments as he does, MacGregor said, they would be seen and written up by all sorts of columnists and do gooders as a racist or bigot.

Clarence Louie is chief and CEO of the Osoyoos Band in the South Okanagan.

He is 44 years old and has had a 20-year-run as chief. His band had apparently been declared bankrupt and taken over by Indian Affairs and he has turned it into the envy of many communities.

There was a goal set in 2000 for the band to become self-sufficient in five years. Apparently they are there.

The band owns, among other things, a vineyard, a winery, a golf course and a tourist resort and they are partners in the Baldy Mountain Ski development.

The excerpts are taken from a speech he made in Fort McMurray because the community needed to start talking about economic development in conjunctions with the oil companies, and what that might mean, for good and for bad.

Much like the Prosperity Project at Taseko Lake.

He started off at this aboriginal conference as some came straggling in.

“I can’t stand people who are late,” he says into the microphone. Indian time doesn’t cut it.”

Apparently some did not know how far he was going with this so just sat back and listened.

“My first rule for success is show up on time.”

“My no. 2 rule for success is, follow rule no. 1.”

“If your life sucks, it’s because you suck.”

“Quit your sniffling.”

“Join the real world. Go to school, or get a job.”

“Get off of welfare. Get off your butts.”

Apparently he gauged the audience to see if he should proceed, and did.

“People often say to me, ‘How you doin?’”

“Geez I’m working with Indians what do you think?”

“Our ancestors worked for a living,” he says. “So should you!”

Chief Louie is tough. According to MacGregor, Chief Louie is tough and is as proud of the fact that his band fires its own people as well as hires them.

He has his mottos posted throughout the reserve. He believes there is not such thing as consensus, that there will always be those who disagree.

And, he says he is “milquetoast” compared to his own mother when it comes to how today’s lazy aboriginal youth, mostly male, should be dealt with.

MacGregor said Louie says aboriginals along the Mackenzie Valley should not look at any sharing in development as rocking-chair money but as an investment opportunity to create sustainable businesses.

The message he took to the Chipewyan, Dene and Cree who lived around the oil sands is equally direct, according to MacGregor: “Get involved, create jobs and meaningful jobs, not just window dressing for the oil companies.”

“The biggest employer should not be the band office,” he said.

More comments from MacGregor’s account:

• The time has come to get over it.

• No more whining about 100-year-old failed experiments.

• No foolishly looking to the queen to protect rights.

• “You’re going to lose your language and culture faster in poverty than you will in economic development,” he says to those who say he is ignoring tradition.

• “Eighty per cent like what I have to say, 20 per cent don’t. I always say to the 20 percent, ‘Get over it.’ Chances are you’re never going to see me again and I’m never going to see you again. Get some counseling.”

• “The first step is all about leadership,” according to his comments. MacGregor said Louie is proud of being a stay-at-home chief who looks after the potholes in his own backyard and wastes no time running around fighting 100-year-old battles.

• The biggest challenge will be how you treat your own people.

• Blaming government? That time is over.

So there it is. Maybe all our leaders need to heed some of these comments.

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