Rooted in Community. Ready to Lead.

Chris Leforte is running for MMF SW Regional Executive Officer to strengthen Métis voices, support youth and Elders, protect culture and traditions and ensure our communities are represented with integrity, accountability, and action.

A MESSAGE FROM CHRIS

Leadership starts with listening

“For much of my life, I have been committed to serving our Métis communities through culture, mentorship, education, land-based learning, and leadership. I’ve worked alongside youth, families, Elders, harvesters, educators, and community members because I believe strong communities are built through connection, respect, and action.

I am running for MMF Regional Executive Officer because I believe leadership should be visible, accountable, and rooted in community. I want to ensure our voices are heard, our citizens are supported, and our culture continues to thrive for future generations.

Together, we can build a stronger future while honouring who we are and where we come from.”

- Chris Leforte

WHY I’M RUNNING

SW Communities Deserve Strong Representation

Our citizens deserve leadership that listens, communicates openly, and works hard to advocate for the priorities that matter most to Métis families.

My father, Ken Leforte, served our people with pride — as Vice Chair of Turtle Mountain Local and later elected to Cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources, until his untimely passing. His dream was a stronger, more united Métis community. I am picking up where he left off — carrying that dream forward with the same purpose and love for our people that he carried in his heart.

As Regional Executive Officer for the SouthWest, I am committed to:

  • Strengthening communication and transparency with citizens

  • Supporting youth leadership and cultural connection

  • Standing up for Métis rights, traditions, and harvesting practices

  • Ensuring Elders are respected, heard, and supported

  • Building stronger relationships across communities

  • Creating opportunities for greater community engagement and participation

PRIORITIES
FOR SW REGION

Focused on What Matters Most

Supporting Youth & Future Generations

Investing in youth leadership, mentorship, cultural programming, and opportunities that strengthen identity, confidence, and connection to community.

Protecting Culture & Traditions

Ensuring Métis culture, language, teachings, harvesting practices, and traditions remain strong and continue to be passed on to future generations.

Stronger Communication & Accountability

Keeping citizens informed, listening to concerns, and ensuring community voices help shape decisions.

Respecting & Supporting Elders

Recognizing the knowledge and leadership of Elders and ensuring they remain an important part of community priorities and decision-making.

Bringing People Together

Building stronger connections between communities, organizations, and citizens to create meaningful opportunities for collaboration and support.

ROOTED IN SERVICE

Chris has dedicated years to serving Métis communities through leadership, mentorship, education, and cultural advocacy.

Highlights of Service

A Lifetime of Community Leadership

Leadership & Governance

  • Chair, Turtle Mountain Métis Local (elected 2022, re-elected 2026)

  • Board Director & Finance Committee Member, Keystone Centre (Assiniboine Credit Union Place)

  • Board Member, Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Committee

  • Indigenous Committee Member, Southwest Horizon School Division

  • Advisory Committee Member, Riverbank Discovery Centre

Education & Knowledge Keeping

  • Traditional Knowledge Keeper, Brandon School Division & Southwest Horizon School Division

  • Cultural presentations at Brandon University, University of Manitoba, and University of Winnipeg

  • Cultural presentations within school divisions across the region

  • Support for Indigenous graduations celebrating student achievement

Culture & Heritage

  • Organizer, cultural camps and Métis Days celebrations

  • Cultural programming within schools and universities

  • Committed to keeping Métis stories, practices, and identity alive across generations

Learn more about Chris

Traditional Economies & Natural Resources

  • Red River Métis trapper since the age of nine

  • Authored the Manitoba Métis Federation Trapping Program (2026)

  • Lead, EIRM Stewards of the Homeland – Environmental Leaders of Tomorrow

  • Property Manager, MMF Turtle Mountain Harvesting Property

  • Operates an outfitting camp in the Turtle Mountain region

  • Mentored hunting camps for youth and first-time hunters

  • Learn to Trap Camps — connecting youth to the land

Youth & Community

  • Youth mentorship through hunts, trap camps, and land-based learning

  • Proud and active ally of the 2SLGBTQ+ community at all levels, committed to ensuring our community is a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space for everyone

  • Marriage Commissioner with Province of Manitoba

Community Building & Fundraising
Organizing and leading events that bring people together, raise funds, and celebrate Métis culture:

  • Turtle Mountain Métis Days

  • Annual Mother's Day Fish Fry

  • Annual Fishing Derby & Skidoo Derby

  • Boissevain Street Fest & Deloraine Farmers Market food services

  • Food services for the Towns of Deloraine and Boissevain

  • Polar Plunge

Carrying Forward Tradition

Chris's roots run deep into the foundation of Métis history. His third-generation grandfather, Toussaint Lucier (Lussier), served as one of twelve counsellors to Louis Riel, manned the barricades at Saint Norbert in 1869, fought in the 1885 Northwest Resistance, and was held prisoner in Regina for his stand. A man of legendary strength, his name is engraved on the Gabriel Dumont National Métis Veterans' Memorial Monument — as is that of Chris's grandfather Boniface Leforte, who fought under Gabriel Dumont's forces at the Battle of Fish Creek and the Battle of Batoche. His grandfather Eustache Lussier operated the ferries connecting Métis communities across the historic Whitehorse Plains. Chris's father, the late Ken Leforte, carried that legacy forward as Minister of Natural Resources with the MMF, playing an instrumental role in the Goodon Case — securing Section 35 harvesting rights for the Red River Métis — and shaping the Laws of the Harvest, before his untimely passing in 2013. His mother, Jackie Leforte, is a recognized Métis Elder, artisan, bannock maker, and community servant who continues to open MMF events in prayer and keep culture alive through her hands and her heart.

It is from this lineage of warriors, rights defenders, and culture keepers that Chris draws his purpose. His work in cultural camps, hunting and trapping mentorship, land-based education, and youth programming is not performance — it is continuation. He has been a Red River Métis trapper since the age of nine, authored the MMF Trapping Program in 2026, and spearheaded the Métis Veterans' Legacy Monument, unveiled in November 2025. Because our future grows stronger when our roots remain strong.