Carey Contois

Carey Contois is a political figure in Manitoba, Canada. She was a candidate of the Independent Native Voice organization in the provincial election of 1995, and was a minor figure in the vote-splitting scandal concerning the INV organization and some members of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party.

Contois is the daughter of Nelson Contois, a political organizer and businessman in the Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba. In 1995, Nelson Contois organized the INV with assistance from PC organizers in the region. His initial intent may have been to create a vehicle through which aboriginal concerns could be expressed in the political arena, although a subsequent judicial inquiry revealed that some figures in the provincial PC organization had financially supported the INV with the intention of taking votes away from their primary opposition, the social-democratic New Democratic Party. (Since at least the early 1970s, aboriginal voters in Manitoba have predominantly supported the NDP.)

Carey Contois was twenty-two years old at the time of the election, and was attending Grade 12 as an adult student. The author Doug Smith described her candidacy as a "work experience project". Contois had two young children and was living on social assistance; she was unable to devote much effort to the campaign, and in fact only left the Waterhen First Nation reserve on two occasions. She does not appear to have played a significant role in her father's discussions with Allan Aitken, a local PC organizer who funded and assisted the INV campaign.

Contois was a candidate in the riding of Dauphin. She received 111 votes, not enough to influence the final outcome; NDP candidate Stan Struthers was able to defeat his Tory opponent by about 800 votes.

Like her father, Carey Contois has subsequently denied that she was induced to run by Tory organizers.