Andy Rickard re-elected chief of Garden River First Nation

Andy Rickard has been re-elected as chief of Garden River First Nation after community members went to the polls Friday. 

The 383 votes cast for Rickard were more than double the number of votes received by each of the challengers, with Karen Bell receiving 190 votes and Albert W. Williams garnering 169 votes. Rickard is now serving his second term as leader of Garden River First Nation. 

“It’s definitely an honour and a privilege to be selected by your community to lead again. It’s always a blessing to know that your people have confidence in your leadership abilities, and to be given another mandate for the next two years is definitely overwhelming,” said Rickard, speaking with SooToday Saturday morning. “It’s a very happy feeling, especially when you know the people, the community, is behind you.”

This year’s election also brought with it some new faces to council, with Kassidy Armstrong, Darwin Belleau, Tim Johns Jr. Tyler Pine, Trevor Solomon, Chris Thibodeau, Dan Tice and Albert W. Williams being elected.

Karen Bell, Cindy Belleau-Jones, Chester Langille and Brandi Nolan have all been re-elected to sit on council. 

A total of 47 candidates were vying for the 12 spots on band council in 2021. Rickard says there were a lot more younger people putting their names forward for this year’s election. 

“It’s nice to see there’s a good mixture, a good balance of younger generation, veteran leadership as well as a pretty good balance between men and women as well,” said Rickard. “It’s not completely balanced, but we do have a good cross-section of our Anishinaabe females and our Anishinaabe males as part of that process. It’ll be exciting, for sure.”