After serving the Métis Nation of B.C. (MNBC) as the Thompson Okanagan youth representative for seven years, Shaughn Davoren was announced as the provincial youth chair-elect.

The 23-year-old Vernon resident triumphed with 209 votes over Columbia Valley’s opponent Braydi Rice at 178 votes. However, Rice was unavailable for comment before the Pioneer went to press.

While there was a short window where it was possible for the interim results to be disputed, Davoren feels confident about his campaign and his new rail as the MNBC provincial youth chair-elect.

“I put a lot more into it this time,” he explained. “The last time I was elected, I was acclaimed. This time, I was running against someone and that really motivated me to do more. I put a lot more on Facebook. I was on Instagram. I was on Snapchat. I was sharing my information in mail out cards and the engagement from the youth was the greatest. What I mean is, it was great that it wasn’t for naught.”

Davoren remains optimistic about the future and hopes to be sworn into his appointment officially on the tentative date of Oct. 14th.

In the interim, Davoren is beginning his first year as a registered nursing student at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan (UBCO).

“I’ve been doing college courses and upgrading,” he said. “I had to keep on reapplying and reapplying. I had to apply four times before I was finally accepted into the nursing program at UBCO to become a registered nurse.”

Davoren indicated that his longterm goal is to work in healthcare either in Kelowna, his current home, or to travel north to work directly with Indigenous communities.

“I’m hoping to help out the Aboriginal community,” said Davoren. “My platform has always been based on the sensitivity of the Métis minority. I have a nephew who is Japanese-Métis. A good friend of mine just had a kid who is Vietnamese-Métis. My cousin is trans-Metis, so I want to introduce an LGBT role to the Metis youth council and to create a vice-chair position on the council.”

He hoped to be collaborative in the role with the 15-to-30-year-old Métis citizens within B.C. as well as with his proposed vice-chair position.

“I want to advocate for the youth and make sure that we are doing things are aligned with what’s been said (by my peers) is wanted,” he said. “Youth are forward thinking, and I want to keep up with that. As a nursing student, I won’t always be able to attend every meeting but we still need a seat at the table so we can have a voice.”