First Nations leaders from across the country are set to cast their ballots to elect the next chief of the Assembly of First Nations Wednesday in Vancouver.
Tammy Cook-Searson of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band is one of the leaders representing Saskatchewan at the AFN assembly.
She says she is sticking firmly with Saskatchewan incumbent Perry Bellegarde in this election.
“He’s worked hard for our nation and he’s done a lot of work for us nationally,” she says. “One of the things that we are going to be asking of him is to be more visible and more present within our communities in northern Saskatchewan, within our community of the La Ronge band, but we still support him.”
The other four candidates in the election are Quebec’s Russ Diabo, B.C.’s Miles Richardson and Manitoba’s Sheila North and Katherine Whitecloud.
Diabo, North and Whitecloud have accused the current AFN chief of being too close to the Liberal government.
Voting gets underway at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday.
(PHOTO: AFN logo. Photo courtesy afn.ca)