Chartrand sweeps Metis federation election
Last Updated: Friday, June 30, 2006 | 8:52 AM CT
CBC News
David Chartrand has won an unprecedented fourth term as president of the Manitoba Métis Federation.
Chartrand won 70 per cent of the provincewide vote in Thursday's election. His only opponent was former lieutenant-governor Yvon Dumont, who held the position from 1984 to 1993.
"We have seven regions in the province, and I won every one of those regions, wide open," Chartrand said Friday.
"It was something I'm very, very proud of, to see the people give me that type of mandate. I'm very humbled about it. And I will continue to do as they've asked me to do."
Chartrand said he would continue to work hard for Manitoba's 100,000 Métis people.
"As [Louis] Riel once said, you know, pray until the Métis nation gets its rights, and we'll fight until the Métis nation gets its rights," he said.
"From my perspective, that's exactly what I'll be doing in this mandate, and I'll be praying and fighting and making very clear [that] my people will get their rights no matter what happens, and no one's going to chase us away and no one's going to scare us away."
The MMF is fighting two major court cases: one aims to give Métis people the same hunting rights as First Nations people; the other is a land-claims case.
