A picture of Herman Crain taken during former Chief Austin Bear's retirement ceremony. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Local politics

Muskoday Chief pledges action on poverty, and improved transparency

Mar 25, 2019 | 12:39 PM

Fresh off last week’s election win, Herman Crain starts his first full week as chief of Muskoday First Nation.

Crain was a councillor for close to 30 years and a longtime member of the Muskoday Fire Department. He received almost 200 more votes than Sandi Leboeuf.

“The people gave me a lot of support, a strong mandate, and it’s up to me now,” Crain said.

During his campaign, Crain told paNOW he was concerned about poverty and addictions on the reserve. He said if elected he would work to address that. Four days after the election, Crain’s tone has not changed.

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“You know deal with the overcrowding in the houses. It’s not something we can do on our own, we’re gonna need partnerships,” he said, adding he will seek federal government grants.

In the final days before the election last week, two of the candidates spoke publicly about a perceived lack of transparency and openness by the previous council. Some of those concerns centered around the story of a young boy left alone on a school bus, and firings at the school with no explanation provided. Crain told paNOW he thought council could do a better job moving forward.

“I will admit that maybe the communication with the membership has got to improve and we kind of experienced that with the incidents this spring at the school and on the bus,” he said.

Crain’s official swearing in ceremony is expected to take place early this week.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell