Following a week of voting that wrapped up on September 19, many Métis people in Alberta have a new governing body representing them.
The Otipemisiwak Métis Government is replacing the former Metis Nation of Alberta (MNA), with 22 newly elected citizen representatives in 22 districts across the province. The 22 citizen representatives are part of the overall provincial Citizens Council. Each district will also have its own District Council.
Jason Ekeberg, the former MNA vice-president for the Region 1 area that covered the Lac La Biche region, is the new citizen representative for the same area, now called District 19. Ekeberg was elected with 165 votes. Two other candidates for the district, Jerry Ladouceur and Dwayne Roth received 36 and 34 votes respectively.
The new government was selected with 8,167 ballots cast from 64,000 eligible voters in the membership that has been carried over from the Metis Nation of Alberta. More than half of the 30 elections for positions in the new government were won by acclamation.
In the St. Paul, Bonnyville and Cold Lake region — now called District 12, Karen Collins was elected as the new citizen representative. In the same district, Bernie Poitras has been selected to the position of District Captain.
Provincially, Andrea Sandmaier is the new Citizens Council president, replacing MNA president Audrey Poitras who announced her resignation from the association earlier in the year after holding the position for 27 years.
The Lac La Biche POST newsroom has tried several times over the last two weeks to reach Ekeberg, the District 19 office and the Edmonton Otipemisiwak offices for comments about the election and next steps, but no one has returned calls.
The Otipemisiwak Métis Government, as per its Constitution, will be run by a citizens council comprised of a president, women’s representative, a youth representative as well as citizen’s representatives from each of the 22 newly-created districts across the province.
