Bob Chiblow has been elected Chief of the Robinson Huron Treaty's Mississauga First Nation, through December 2023.
He was welcomed to his two-year term by the elected council this month after topping the polls in a three-way election race for Elected Chief at MFN.
Mississauga First Nation voters chose Chiblow to replace Reg Niganobe who was elected Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation in June and stepped down as the elected leader of the Mississaugas in September, to assume his new position.
Chief Chiblow said he's already discovered his new responsibilities constitute a full-time job.
"Just getting oriented is the main thing. The community is pretty good with programming.
He also said Mississauga FN has a capable staff in charge of day-to-day operations.
There are a number of Mississauga First Nation communities spread across Canada including Curve Lake in the Peterborough and Kawarthas area and Mississaugas of the New Credit, southwest of Brantford, here in Ontario.
He favours more communication with those other communities.
"It's called Mississauga Nation rebuilding where we're getting all the original Mississaugas together," Chief Chiblow explained.
"We're looking at collaborating on a few things and that's where we are right now," he said. "So it's a good thing. It's a good thing to have to meet our cousins that way.
While he appreciates the acknowledgement by non-native communities of First Nations as guardians of the land and their declarations affirming Native Treaty Rights, Chief Chiblow wants to see more tangible recognition.
But we need more, more than that. I think that's one of the things you'll see coming out of my run here.
One of the things I'd look to see is advance of some of the economic development opportunities that we're actually working on," he continued.
What that's going to do is create employment for the people who want to work.
We're going to create, hopefully, revenue to spin-off and create other opportunities in the business sector.
What I'd like to do is foster relationships between our community and business in town, and local industry.
That's my goal for the next couple of years to leave Mississauga in a better and more responsible spot and to come dealing with our neighbours," Chief Chiblow concluded.