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Known to his people as Pitikwahanapiwiyin, Poundmaker surrendered and was tried in Regina. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to three years in Stoney Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba. He died a year later in 1886.

Fast forward 133 years to last week, when Poundmaker was granted long-overdue exoneration by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that Chief Poundmaker was not a criminal, but someone who worked tirelessly to ensure the survival of his people, and hold the Crown accountable to its obligations as laid out in Treaty 6,” Trudeau said at the Poundmaker First Nation west of North Battleford. “We recognize that the unjust conviction and imprisonment of Chief Poundmaker had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the Poundmaker Cree Nation.”

The feel of the event was one of fixing a historical wrong. And given that it took place in the Battlefords-Lloydminster federal riding — one of Saskatchewan’s rural seats that will be impossible for the Conservatives to lose — it didn’t seem like a pre-campaign event for Trudeau. After all, the usually non-active First Nations vote won’t have a meaningful effect on Liberal fortunes in Saskatchewan.

Or will it?

With the imposition of the reviled carbon tax in April and the all-out political war waged by Regina-Qu’Appelle MP/Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Saskatchewan Party Premier Scott Moe over the TransMountain Pipeline delays and Bill C-69, how would it be possible to even consider the Liberals could gain seats in Saskatchewan? With even stalwart Ralph Goodale thought to be in for the fight of his life in Wascana, shouldn’t Liberals be focusing on holding on to what little they have?