For the first time in a long time, a municipal election ballot in North Battleford will not have the name “Ray Fox” on it.
Fox was a candidate for council in the last six municipal elections going back to 1997. The last four times, he was successful.
But he acknowledged the toll that campaigning has taken on his supporters and particularly his wife Krista, who has helped organize his campaigns. Fox noted his wife took his defeats hard the first times he ran, when he didn’t do so well.
“I kept telling her, this is the last time, this is the last time,” said Fox of his various election runs.
In 2012, Fox told his wife this would be his last run for council. This time, he meant it.
“I told her the last time it would be the last time,” said Fox. “So, I’m just keeping my promise to her, basically.”
But Fox has some other goals that he wants to pursue that go beyond the confines of City Hall.
He wants to play a role in bridging the racial divide that has erupted in the past months in the wake of the shooting death of Colten Boushie, a young man from Red Pheasant First Nation who was killed in the RM of Glenside.
Fox said he was troubled by the negative social media reaction that erupted afterwards, with a flood of online comments directed at aboriginal people.
It was “to the point of people actually signing their names to the rhetoric and the hate mail,” said Fox. “It brought out something, I don’t know what.”
Fox had been of the opinion there were strides made in race relations.
“There’s been movement. We’ve been getting ahead a little bit in some of these cases.”
But he believes the Boushie shooting aftermath reversed that momentum.
“I think this particular situation set us back a whole lot,” said Fox.
“It’s caused us, particularly First Nations people, to look inside now, you know, and ask ‘what is going on here?’ It’s really a sobering event that took place and it’s got a lot of people confused.”
What indigenous people found particular hurtful, he said, were the comments directed from farmers towards aboriginal people.
“People that we’ve worked for, that we’ve lived around for all of these years, and to have this kind of hate come out. Some of these people, we’ve worked for their parents and their grandparents on their farms, picking roots and rocks and clearing brush and using horses in some cases. I remember my dad worked for a lot of farmers around the area.”
It seemed like farmers and aboriginals had forged strong relationships, until this summer.
“All of a sudden, all of those relationships collapsed. And we’re going ‘what the heck happened here?’ In a generation or two we believe we’ve managed to build a relationship with these people, and it turns out we haven’t. Somehow, somewhere along the lines these feelings have been kept alive … because they erupted.”
Fox decided he needed to take a role to address those race-relations issues directly.
“I think I need to do more in that area, and I don’t know if city council is the place for me to do that.”
He explained that during his time on council Fox has maintained that he is there “for everybody. I’m really, really happy to say I’ve cultivated a lot of relationships with people who are non-indigenous people and indigenous people.”
He pointed to successes on council at building those relationships, such as efforts to be cross-cultural and inclusive, including building relationships with the RCMP, as well as the City’s support for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Fox and the rest of council were instrumental in sponsoring a resolution that went before the SUMA convention in Saskatoon, in which SUMA delegates lent their support to an inquiry.
“I think now we’re starting to understand why we needed that inquiry,” said Fox. “Now that we are into that inquiry people are beginning to believe that we need to do something. We can’t sit by and watch these things unfold in front of us.”
Fox said he wants to participate in addressing that issue in the future, but also in fostering relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people.
To that end, Fox says he’s also talked to people at the band level, including band councillors and “with a chief or two” on that issue. They have also begun to lay out some groundwork with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner on a few things they hope to have a discussion on.
“We have to talk. As long as we keep talking about each other we’re never going to get any answers and we’ll never going to build any relationships because the rhetoric gets stronger and stronger as we go.”
He suggests leadership from the indigenous and non-indigenous side “need to sit down. We need to sit down and think and plan out some strategies about how we can foster these relationships we need to build.”
He said he also plans to work with the Friendship Centres of Canada on a youth conference and workshop event, followed by a Wicihitowin Aboriginal Engagement Conference in Saskatoon in October.
The workshop will be an opportunity to “mix our youth and our elders together” and talk about things like language, spirituality and other topics.”
As for this coming municipal election, it will be strange for Fox to sit this one out.
But he does have a deep interest in this vote. His nephew, Herman Bugler, Jr., is running for council.
“I have a lot of faith and confidence in him, I think he’ll make a darn good councillor,” said Fox, but adds “this is going to be one tough election for anybody that’s new.”
He pointed to the presence of several former councillors on the ballot including Len Taylor, Grace Lang, Don Salie and former mayor Wayne Ray. And he also noted his four council colleagues are seeking re-election.
“This particular council has been great,” said Fox. He singled out the building activities that have gone on in recent years.
“It’s hard to go anywhere in the city right now and not find some construction and some activities going on.”
All in all, Fox looks back with pride at his years on North Battleford council and sees the future as bright for the area. “I believe there’s a very strong future for the Battlefords, I really, really do.”
