{"id":110353,"date":"2026-11-09T10:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=110353"},"modified":"2026-11-09T10:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:21:16","slug":"qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Meet the new Kanesatake electoral officer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door It\u2019s been a long road, but Kanesatake should be heading into the new year having finally elected a new Council. The person responsible for making sure it goes as planned this time around is recently selected chief electoral officer Loretta J. Pete Lambert, a lawyer from Little Pine Cree Nation. The election is set for December 19, more than 16 months after previous chief electoral officer Graeme Drew shocked the community by cancelling the August 2, 2025, contest on the eve of election day, shocking the community and pushing Kanesatake into a full-blown governance crisis. In making his decision to suspend the poll &#8211; and in effect cancel the election &#8211; Drew cited his belief that there were several ineligible&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F11%2F09%2Fqa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door It\u2019s been a long road, but Kanesatake should be heading into the new year having finally elected a new Council. The person responsible for making sure it goes as planned this time around is recently selected chief electoral officer Loretta J. Pete Lambert, a lawyer from Little Pine Cree Nation. The election is set for December 19, more than 16 months after previous chief electoral officer Graeme Drew shocked the community by cancelling the August 2, 2025, contest on the eve of election day, shocking the community and pushing Kanesatake into a full-blown governance crisis. In making his decision to suspend the poll &#8211; and in effect cancel the election &#8211; Drew cited his belief that there were several ineligible... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F11%2F09%2Fqa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Q&amp;A: Meet the new Kanesatake electoral officer - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&amp;A: Meet the new Kanesatake electoral officer - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door It\u2019s been a long road, but Kanesatake should be heading into the new year having finally elected a new Council. The person responsible for making sure it goes as planned this time around is recently selected chief electoral officer Loretta J. Pete Lambert, a lawyer from Little Pine Cree Nation. The election is set for December 19, more than 16 months after previous chief electoral officer Graeme Drew shocked the community by cancelling the August 2, 2025, contest on the eve of election day, shocking the community and pushing Kanesatake into a full-blown governance crisis. In making his decision to suspend the poll &#8211; and in effect cancel the election &#8211; Drew cited his belief that there were several ineligible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-09T15:21:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/09\\\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/09\\\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Q&#038;A: Meet the new Kanesatake electoral officer\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-09T15:21:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/09\\\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":923,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/09\\\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/09\\\/qa-meet-the-new-kanesatake-electoral-officer\\\/\",\"name\":\"Q&A: Meet the new Kanesatake electoral officer - 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