The incumbent chief of the province’s largest First Nation has been re-elected.
Tammy Cook-Searson was one of eight candidates running for chief in the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s chief and council election yesterday.
Unofficial results have her receiving 1,023 votes — almost twice as much as the runner-up, Morris Cook, who got 546 votes.
Cook-Searson says she has no problem with the fact that seven people chose to run against her or that the combined votes of her rivals (2,139) was more than twice her total:
“It just shows that our democracy is healthy in the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. There’s a lot of interest, there’s a lot of people that want to make changes and want to do something different. But at the same time, with the election results, it shows that people are happy with what we are doing in economic development and also plans in social development.”
Cook-Searson has been the band’s chief since 2005, and will serve a new three-year term.
The unofficial winners from the band council elections include Larry McKenzie in Sucker River; Sam Roberts, Annie Ratt, Irwin Hennie and Charlene Venne in La Ronge; Bernice Roberts, John P. Roberts and Linda Charles in Stanley Mission; Keith Mirasty and Lawrence Halkett in Little Red; Leon Charles in Grandmother’s Bay; and McIvor Eninew in Hall Lake.
McKenzie, Linda Charles, Hennie, Venne, Halkett and Eninew are new to council.
The official swearing-in ceremony is set for Thursday at a reserve community centre in the La Ronge area.