Caribou Wins Sandy Bay Byelection

Caribou Wins Sandy Bay Byelection

Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 15:22

A long-awaited byelection finally took place in Sandy Bay yesterday.

Incumbent Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation band councillor David Caribou defeated fellow candidate Robert Ray by an unofficial vote count of 186 to 126.

The two finished tied for the second available band council post in the community in the recent PBCN election.

A roadblock by a coalition of protesters prevented the byelection from taking place on its originally-scheduled date a couple of weeks ago, and there were rumblings of another potential roadblock yesterday.

However, it didn’t materialize.

A spokesman for the protesters says they decided to honour an RCMP request not to stage the blockade, and will pursue their grievances through other means.