Joseph Tsannie re-elected as Athabasca vice-chief

“If you look at the wolf pack, you measure the health of the pack by how healthy the young ones are,” he said. “It is a great honour for me as a young man.

“We do have a bright future. Don’t let anybody tell you we don’t. Don’t let anybody else tell you that we’re not united.”

Speaking to the media afterwards, Tsannie says he expected to be re-elected after a strong campaign.

“When you have your people back you, you have a lot of confidence,” he said. “You get to know the people, and you get to feel their pains and their successes. You get to understand the community.”

With youth by his side, Tsannie says he will continue to focus on bringing a different perspective to council.

“A little young leadership going into what we have here at the tribal council,” Tsannie said. “Hopefully I can add a little spice and try to get them to think out of the box.

“We dwell so much on the negatives. When leadership talks, we dwell so much on the negatives and we try to highlight them. We need to change that around and highlight the good things that are happening.”

He mentioned business, hunting and fishing industries as bright spots in the northern communities.

Continuing in the subject of youth, Tsannie says more needs to be done in terms of education and healthcare for the younger population.

“We have a lot of struggles in terms of suicides, alcohol and drug abuse. We need to do a lot for our young people,” he said. “I want to give hope to our communities so that we can provide better services and programs for our youth so they can have a bright future and have a quality education, quality housing.”

Many of the issues Tsannnie spoke about were those mentioned in prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau’s election campaign.

On top of committing to an inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, Trudeau also promised $2.6 billion in First Nations education and $500 million in infrastructure for First Nations schools.

“I’m putting a lot on the Liberal Party because they say they’re going to do this and that for education. Hopefully those doors are still open and they do what they say.”

Tsannie was first elected Athabasca vice-chief in May 2012.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @khangvnguyen

by Khang Nguyen

Joseph Tsannie re-elected as Athabasca vice-chief

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