Young carver’s election as chief of Tsawwassen First Nation stands

A 23- year- old carver defeated his more experienced rival to become chief of the Tsawwassen First Nation Wednesday night after the same result last September was overturned.

Bryce Williams now has a new mandate to lead the nation, according to a concession tweeted by former chief Kim Baird.

“Bryce got it. He beat me fair and square,” Baird tweeted around 9 p. m. “Glad for the great turnout.”

The official results — the TFN has a population of 439 and 260 eligible voters — were not available before press time and neither candidate could be reached. Voters also cast ballots for 12 members of the legislature.

Williams had won last fall’s election with 78 votes over Kim Baird’s 69. The new vote was called after the Tsawwassen First Nation judicial council in December declared the results of the Sept. 5 election invalid.

The decision came after Baird’s brother Mike and niece Christina Shellard filed an appeal on the basis that a pre- election notice from the electoral officer incorrectly pegged the Wednesday, Sept. 5 vote a day later as “Thursday, Sept. 5.”

Electoral officer Lawrence Lewis said in an email that as of 7 p. m. Wednesday, a total of 113 ballots had been cast.

Baird said earlier that things have been amicable if not “a bit awkward” between her and Williams, and, “It’ll be good to know

Bryce got it. He beat me fair and square.

KIM BAIRD FORMER TSAWWASSEN CHIEF ON TWITTER

what the will of the community is and the outcome of the new election.”

Williams said he was disappointed to have to run a new campaign after he was just “getting settled in” as chief and implementing new arts programs aimed at empowering TFN youth, but that he agreed with the decision.

Before last September’s election, Williams sat on the executive council that acts like a cabinet to the chief. Like Baird’s, his campaign for chief focused on continuing the nation’s economic development.

Baird, 42, was seeking her seventh term as chief after overseeing multimilliondollar housing and commercial developments, as well as a historic 2009 treaty with the federal government that gave the First Nation the powers of a municipality and released it from the Indian Act. The treaty also enshrined an appeal process through the judicial council that has the same authority as the provincial Supreme Court.

Baird won the 2009 election by acclamation.