SASKATOON — Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Robert “Bobby” Cameron has been reelected for another three-year term after convincingly beating Robert A. Merasty in a two-way race for the top post.
A total of 992 of the 1,008 electors cast their vote or a 91.2 percent turnout in Thursday night’s election. The results were certified by online voting system provider Simply Voting Inc. and was signed by its president Brian Lack.
Cameron garnered 747 of the 992 votes or 75.3 per cent against the 245 or 24.7 per cent earned by Merasty.
Former Second Vice Chief David Pratt opted to run for the First VC post and defeated incumbent Morley Watson. Pratt had 71.7 percent of the vote or 711 against Morley’s 281 or 28.3 percent.
Edward “Dutch” Lerat will be replacing Pratt as Second VC besting Dusting Fidler by 2.2 percent of the votes, 51.1 percent against 48.9 percent, or 507 to 485.
Fourth VC Heather Bear won a four-way race by a landslide collecting 523 (52.7 percent) votes against her closest rival Pamela Whitehawk’s 164 (16.5 percent). Fenton Favel was third with 161 (16.5%) while Curtis Standing had 144 (14.5 percent).
Alyson Bear became the new member of the FSIN Executive after being elected as the Third VC with 392 votes (39.5 percent) against the 354 of Michael Linklater (35.7 percent). Darrin Morin was third with 246 (24.8 percent).
Cameron, Pratt, and Alyson Bear will be serving for three years while Lerat and Heather Bear will have two-year terms each.
The election pushed through despite opposition from several candidates that were disqualified. Moves to delay the election was dismissed in court.
FSIN is an association that represents 74 First Nations in the province.
