Looking Back
The Early Years
The Road to Nunavut
What Price Nunavut?
The Next Generation
Inuit and The Land As One
Living with Change
Our Language, Our Selves
Inuit Art: The New Reality
Hunters and High Finance
The Subsistence Economy
A Public Government
The First MLAs
The World Looks North
What's In A Name?

Map of Nunavut

THE FIRST MLAs

By Marion Soublière

[The MLAs]   Election night in Iqaluit lear, crisp winter weather and years of pent-up enthusiasm produced an extremely high voter turnout in Nunavut's historic first election Feb. 15, 1999. Eighty-eight per cent of Nunavut's 12,210 eligible electors cast ballots. In the ridings of Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit Centre, voter turnout even surpassed 100 per cent. That's because more voters showed up at the polls than appeared on the official voters list. The people of Nunavut chose 19 political representatives to send to Nunavut's first legislative assembly: 15 Inuit and four non-Inuit. Only one of the new members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) is a woman — Manitok Thompson, one of the most vocal opponents of the gender parity proposal that would have introduced equal numbers of men and women into Nunavut's legislature. The proposal was defeated in a Nunavut-wide plebiscite in May 1997. Among the new territory's first MLAs are businessmen, former politicians, hunters, an airport maintenance worker, and Nunavut's first Inuk lawyer. Visit Nunavut: Basic Facts for a list of which MLAs occupy premier, speaker and ministerial positions, as well as contact information for each. The MLAs (Number of registered voters indicated after each riding.) Rankin Inlet North - 508: Jack Anawak Rankin Inlet South (including Whale Cove) - 607: Manitok Thompson Arviat - 820: Kevin O'Brien Nanulik (Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour) - 554: James Arvaluk Baker Lake - 698: Glenn McLean Amittuq (Hall Beach, Igloolik) - 893: Enoki Irqittuq Akulliq (Pelly Bay, Repulse Bay) - 532: Ovide Alakannuark Nattilik (Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven) - 817: Uriash Puqiqnak Kugluktuk - 649: Donald Havioyak Cambridge Bay (including Umingmaktok, Bathurst Inlet) - 584: Kelvin Ng Quttiktuq (Grise Fiord, Resolute, Nanisivik, Arctic Bay) - 656: Levi Barnabas Tunnuniq (Pond Inlet) - 544: Jobie Nutarak Uqqumiut (Clyde River, Qikiqtarjuaq) - 652: David Iqaqrialu Pangnirtung - 689: Peter Kilabuk Iqaluit Centre - 415: Hunter Akat Tootoo Iqaluit East - 688: Ed Picco Iqaluit West - 806: Paul Okalik South Baffin (Kimmirut, Cape Dorset) - 764: Olayuk Akesuk Hudson Bay (Sanikiluaq) - 343: Petter Kattuk