On Nov. 3, the Burns Lake Band (BLB) held elections for chief and council and Ray Gerow has been elected as the new chief for the band by the members.
Ray Gerow and Clayton Charlie stood for the chief position along with Dan George, the now former chief for the band. The Chief Election Officer for the BLB elections, Loreen Suhr confirmed that Gerow won with 49 votes, where George received 26 votes and Charlie received 21 votes.
For council, Chickey Lorentz, Cecelia Sam, Ron Charlie and Ryan Tibbetts were the members who stood in the elections. Chickey Lorentz was re-elected with 56 votes along with Cecelia Sam who was also elected to the council with 54 votes. Ron Charlie and Tibbetts received 33 and 30 votes respectively.
“They did very well. They had a very good mail-in-ballot turnout as we had mail-in-ballots due to Covid. It was good,” said Suhr.
Gerow moved to Burns Lake from Brighton, Ontario in 1977 after graduating high school. He lived in Burns Lake for over 10 years and worked at Babine Forest Products and also as a part-time ambulance attendant with BC Ambulance, worked part-time as a fire boss, firefighter and first aid attendant with BC Ministry of Forests, ran several small businesses like first aid, custom cakes, chimney sweep, snow plowing and also operated a small hobby farm.
After leaving Burns Lake, Gerow joined the Canadian Military, and was posted to Chilliwack and then Trenton, Ontario. He served as an active military member during the Gulf War, and spent time in Germany, Cyprus and Doha Qatar. After leaving military in 1992, Gerow moved back to Burns Lake to work with the Burns Lake Native Development Corporation (BLNDC). He was then asked to join the Lake Development Society and later recruited to start up the Aboriginal Business Development Centre in Prince George, a position he held for 15 years.
Despite having lived in Burns Lake for over 10 years, Gerow has not lived on the Burns Lake Band reservation and has lived in Heiltsuk, Bella Bella and currently lives on the Squamish reserve. Gerow now plans to move back to Burns Lake, depending on when he is able to secure a rental accomodation. In a Q&A before the elections, Gerow told the members that while he doesn’t live in Burns Lake currently, he is aware of the issues and what is needed to move forward.
“I started my family in Burns Lake, raised my three kids there and my parents are buried in the Burns Lake cemetery. No matter where I have lived, my heart has always been in Burns Lake,” he said.