Robert Joe, Warren Paull and Ben Pierre Jr. are the three seasoned politicians who have been nominated for chief in the upcoming shíshálh Nation elections. It’s a good thing they are all experienced leaders because there is not much institutional depth among the 11 candidates for the four councillor seats – and there will be no Calvin Craigan or Garry Feschuk to pick up the slack. Therefore it’s going to be critical for the shíshálh to have a strong, capable chief.
Robert Joe, on the face of it, appears to have an edge going into the race, at least over Warren Paull. Why? Because Joe defeated Paull in last June’s byelection by 111 to 67 votes. However, that was last June. In a subsequent byelection in October, Paull came back and won a seat on council by defeating four other candidates, including two high-profile leaders in last May’s lockdown of the band’s administrative offices. Paull was also the only candidate to go up against Craigan three years ago and narrowly missed becoming chief then, receiving 108 votes compared to Craigan’s 115. So last June’s byelection results could be irrelevant and misleading when it comes to the band electing a new chief.
Ben Pierre Jr. served for nine years on council before being re-elected in a February 2013 byelection. At the time of last year’s lockout, the public learned that Pierre was no longer on council, and that was one of the many issues the dissidents raised at the time. It’s still unclear why Pierre had left council, but his passion for leadership was well displayed during a candidates’ forum in 2013. “People do know me from the past,” he said. “I’m aggressive. I’m assertive. I don’t take no nonsense from anybody. I dig in my feet for what I believe is right and that’s what I want to bring to the administration, because I don’t see the wheels of our bureaucracy turning. I think they’re stuck right now.”
Joe, also a strong and outspoken orator who had served two terms on council prior to his recent byelection win, was one of two former councillors who went public in early 2015 to complain about “mass confusion” among band members, saying they had never been consulted about reconciliation with the province and what it meant. At an Idle No More event in 2013, Joe warned of the Americans coming one day for the territory’s fresh water and told the broader Sunshine Coast audience that he was “glad to see you white-eyes here today standing side by side with us to help protect our lands, water, air and the oceans.”
Paull, who was on council when the shíshálh achieved self-government in 1986 and also served in two later terms, has spoken eloquently about the importance and mechanics of self-government, stressing the constant learning that it requires on the part of chief and council. After winning last October’s byelection, Paull said working on the reconciliation process was “the big one” facing council, along with reorganizing “the entire administration.”
Huge tasks are obviously ahead for the band’s leadership. With three strong contenders vying for the chief position, this promises to be quite a race.
