Tommy Kakfwi elected chief of Fort Good Hope

Tommy Kakfwi has been elected as the new chief of Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.

He received 85 votes for chief, unseating incumbent Daniel Masuzumi, who received 83 votes.

Masuzumi was chief of the remote community of 500 people for two years. He was first elected in 2019.

Kakfwi was a councillor of the community before this election.

"I could celebrate, but there's a lot of work ahead of me," Kakfwi told the CBC. "People wanted change and I'm willing to take on that task of making changes."

Kakfwi says the pandemic was difficult for Fort Good Hope.

"The previous leadership tried the best they could with what they had, but you couldn't assemble and that restricted the community from communicating with the leadership," he said.

"Hopefully now that some of those restrictions are being lifted, we can start dealing with some of these issues that are plaguing the community and [start] dealing with it as a community."

According to the community's charter, Kakfwi also takes on the role of mayor of Fort Good Hope.

He says he will tentatively be sworn in as chief on Wednesday.

Fort Good Hope councillors

The nine elected councillors who will be working alongside Kakfwi are:

• Angela Chinna, with 109 votes;

• Jonas Chinna, with 93 votes;

• Paul Dixon, with 94 votes;

• Lucy Jackson, with 94 votes;

• Floyd Kakfwi, with 115 votes;

• Beverly Masuzumi, with 112 votes;

• Rose McNeely, with 108 votes;

• Collin Pierrot, with 92 votes;

• and Joseph Tobac, with 132 votes.

A total of 12 people ran for council.