LLRIB chief seeking Liberal Party of Canada nomination
Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) Chief Tammy Cook-Searson has announced her intention to seek the Liberal Party nomination for the federal riding of Desnethé-Missinipi-Churchill River.
“I’ve been asked a number of times to run before in the federal election and I thought about it before,” she said. “It’s an opportune time and I decided to run for the Liberals for the nomination.”
Currently serving a fifth term as LLRIB chief, Cook-Searson has spent 21 years on band council and believes her experience in that time has made her ready to become an MP. If the Liberals manage to once again form a majority government in the October 2019 election, she said it would be a good time for her to bring forward issues relating to Treaty and Indigenous rights, agricultural policy and northern development.
Cook-Searson noted she was motivated to seek out the nomination because of the work she’s seen the Liberals do for northerners, adding there’s been movement on the creation of an educational authority for the band, education, health and child welfare. She said the federal government continues to underfund First Nations in those areas and she would like to work to have that changed.