Audrey Poitras

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Audrey Poitras is a Canadian Métis politician born in 1950. She is best known for leading the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) as its president from 1996 to 2023, becoming the first woman to hold that role and, at the time, its longest-serving president. She also served as vice-president of the Métis National Council and joined the Board of the Canadian Executive Service Organization in 2004.

Poitras grew up on a farm near Elk Point, Alberta, and lives in Edmonton. She is the daughter of Jean Baptiste Dumont and Mabel Kinchshe and has family ties to the historic Métis leader Gabriel Dumont and the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement.

As MNA president, Poitras was a prominent advocate for Métis rights in Canada. She helped secure important milestones, including recognition of Métis rights after the Daniels decision in 2016. She led efforts to establish significant partnerships, such as Métis Endowment funds totaling about $22 million, and the creation of the MNA’s Rupertsland Institute and the Métis Centre of Excellence, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, to promote education, training, and research.

In 2003, she was interim president of the Métis National Council and celebrated the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Powley, which affirmed Métis rights as Aboriginal. In 2004, Poitras helped negotiate the Interim Métis Harvesting Agreement with Alberta, the first agreement in the country to deliver Métis harvesting rights. She also played a key role in the Canada–Métis Nation Framework Agreement, signed in 2005.

Poitras has received many honors. She was named among The Alberta 100 by CBC in 2005, and Alberta Venture listed her as one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people. She was later named Indigenous Leader of the Year by the Alberta Chamber of Resources in 2016 and has earned numerous other awards, including a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.

One of her notable projects is Métis Crossing, a cultural interpretive site along the North Saskatchewan River near Smoky Lake, Alberta.

Poitras announced her retirement as MNA president in 2023 after decades of leadership. Her work has left a lasting impact on Métis rights and Indigenous education in Alberta and Canada.