Head Tale

Chief Cadmus Delorme of Cowessess First Nation is one of, if not the most, high profile Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan for his work in business, child welfare and much more.  (Unfortunately, part of his high profile,including an interview for CBS’s “60 Minutes” show, is for very tragic reasons.)

Above is a pic of myself and my Union President talking to Chief Cadmus Delorme in the lobby just after he spoke at the recent CUPE convention.  Near the end of his presentation, he all but admitted that he had just announced he won’t run for a third term as Chief of Cowessess First Nation, both to support his wife and spend more time with his family but also with an eye to his political future (to do politics in the “White Man Worldview” way as he puts it in his powerful presentation which you owe it to yourself to watch below.)

Given his comments and my personal interest (I thought I had even made a cryptic reference to hoping he might run for Sask NDP Leader during their most recent leadership race on this blog but can’t find it now), we chatted politics and he said all parties have approached him and depending on the topic, he leans left on some things, right on some things and is in the middle on some things so he has a lot of decisions to make but wouldn’t reveal more than that.

As an outside observer, I think he has two obvious options – run for the Federal Liberals (giving a loving gaze to Justin Trudeau during one of their previous meetings is a key punchline in his presentation), possibly in Ralph Goodale’s former Regina-Wascana riding or run for the Federal NDP, possibly against Andrew Scheer in Regina-Qu’Appelle.  (In fact, my introductory comment to him was: “Is your friend Justin giving you French lessons by any chance?” because I’m subtle like that.)

Later in our chat, I couldn’t help but go into “political advisor” mode and gave him a suggestion (well, framed as a question) that I think would help his chances if he were to run (because I have such a great track record in that area having lost *way* more campaigns than I’ve won that I’ve been involved in!)

Anyhow, this was the second time I’ve heard his presentation in as many months with him having spoken at the RPL Staff Day in January.  But he’s an awesome speaker with a great presentation – facts, emotions, humour – that’s worth a listen (especially knowing you might be hearing a future MP speak!)