nunavut

The federal election, Nunavut-style

/ Jane George / Leave a comment

No one looks to Nunavut’s sprawling federal riding for a bellwether community to predict voter tendencies during an election — but if there were such a Nunavut community to look at during this past federal election, it would have been Cambridge Bay.

It was in this western Nunavut town that former Nunavut MP and Conservative cabinet minister Leona Aglukkaq started her political career as a hamlet councillor In 2011, she easily carried the community — and Nunavut —  in the same way that the Tories won the national vote.

This is how Cambridge Bay, population 2,000, looked in mid-September, with Mt. Pelly, 20 kilometres away, peering from behind. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

This is how Cambridge Bay, population 2,000, looked in mid-September, with Mt. Pelly, 20 kilometres away, peering from behind. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Cambridge Bay, which is never short of news (and previous blog post inspiration) and where I have many friends, seemed like a good place to sit out this federal election.

So I arrived in Cambridge Bay on Sept. 13 and left Oct. 20, the day after the votes were counted.

In Cambridge Bay on Oct. 19, voters decided to support Liberal candidate Hunter Tootoo and the New Democratic Party’s Jack Anawak, leaving the Tories and Aglukkaq in third place in Cambridge Bay (361 for Tootoo, 170 for Anawak, 164 for Aglukkaq and 10 for the Green party.)

How the Oct. 19 vote would shape up in Cambridge Bay became clear to me over the weeks as I watched the scenery change and the ice solidify — like opinions among voters.

When I arrived, Cambridge Bay was still in the last days of its longer-than-usual summer. Then, the days became colder.

Sunset in October by the shore. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Sunset in October by the shore. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

One afternoon I spotted a field of frost flowers, spreading over the thin ice.

I spotted this frost flowers — formed when conditions are calm and there's a 15 C temperature difference between the air and the water. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

I spotted these frost flowers — formed when conditions are calm and there’s a 15 C temperature difference between the air and the water. You can see the field in the top of this post. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

A view to Mt. Pelly in October at sunset. (photo by JANE GEORGE)

A view to Mt. Pelly in October at sunset. (photo by JANE GEORGE)

The sunsets began to turn unreal shades, with a layer of bright pink mist over a darker blue sky.

In mid-October, the weather turned even colder, just around the time when Liberal leader (and now Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau visited Iqaluit.

There, among other things, he served up stew to hungry people at a community feast.

In Cambridge Bay, everything iced up and the foxes started to turn white.

A fox scampers across the ice in mid-October. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

A fox scampers across the ice in mid-October. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Meanwhile, the three main party candidates also visited Cambridge Bay to campaign — Aglukkaq keeping a low profile, but the Liberals’ Tootoo and the NDP’s Anawak getting out and meeting people.

Signs for Tootoo cropped up over town. A homeowner kept a “Stop Harper/ Nutqarrit” sign posted on his house.

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The “Stop Harper” sign is bilingual, with “Nutqarrit” meaning “stop” in Inuinnaqtun. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Students at the local high school voted for the NDP in mock election. And many people talked to me about wanting change.

I decided to write a story for the Nunatsiaq News Oct. 18 about the the mood in Cambridge Bay, and that this Tory stronghold was leaning to the Liberals and NDP,  as story which you can read here.

And on election day I went to the community hall to speak to voters after they cast ballots. I took a photo of elders after they came to vote, a photo that circulated among thousands of people on Twitter.

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A “This is how we vote in Canada” tweet, along with this photo, from Nunatsiaq News’ managing editor Lisa Gregoire saw my photo of elders circulate among thousands of people. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

I was careful to tell everyone I spoke to who I was (if they didn’t know me) and ask them only why they felt it was important to vote — not who they voted for.

A couple with a small child told me “we need help.” The North is crying out for help, they said, because they can’t survive on the $1,300 they receive every month from social assistance. “There’s nowhere to turn for help,” they said.

And the cost of food is so high that why said they couldn’t afford even a pound of hamburger, so they and others turn to the dump to scavenge for food.

I didn’t have to ask which party they voted for.

Throughout the day a steady stream of voters came to vote — and the numbers would show later that, while Aglukkaq held on to her vote from 2011, turnout increased, and three times as many voters in Cambridge Bay came out to support the Liberals and the NDP than the Tories.

I helped my friend Eva Kakolak Avadluk bring her two sons, Anthony and Ashlee, who are blind to the polling station so they could vote, using Braille ballots. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

I helped my friend Eva Kakolak Avadluk bring her two sons, Anthony and Ashlee, who are blind, to the polling station so they could vote using Braille ballots. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

So, more than 500 voters were happy Oct. 20 — but not Aglukkaq’s friends and supporters. One woman wrote me a couple of unpleasant messages and then a comment on Facebook — that made me think again how it’s much harder to report the news in Canada’s North than not.

After I posted the photo of my friends on my Facebook feed, I received this comment Oct. 20 from a friend and supporter of the former Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq.

After I posted the photo of my friends voting on my Facebook feed, I received this comment Oct. 20 from a friend and supporter of the former Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq.

I was able to delete the comment and block the woman on Facebook: sort of a solution.

But I was reminded again that, in a small Arctic community, you live beside people who may dislike you and bully you into being quiet — a tough situation for people who can’t leave (but one I saw in the 1990s and you can read about here or in a recent two-part series by Nunatsiaq News reporter Thomas Rohner).

Part 5: You know you’ve never been to Iqaluit/Frobisher Bay when…

/ Jane George / Leave a comment

In my last blog post, you heard about some of the images on building walls around Iqaluit that show representations of people I have known or written about, such as singers Susa Aningmiuq and Jimmy Ekho. And, on another wall-image, there’s Nunavik singer and songwriter Charlie Adams, who died in 2008.

Charlie Adams as you walk towards Arctic Ventures. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Charlie Adams as you walk towards Arctic Ventures. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Charlie was 55 when he died in a Montreal hospital from complications related to injuries he had suffered in an accident in 2004.

But, before that, over a 30-year career, Charlie played at numerous music festivals throughout the eastern Arctic. He also toured the United States, England and the Netherlands where he performed for Queen Juliana. Adams was generous with his talent. Travellers (me, included) stuck at Iqaluit’s airport back during a February 1994 blizzard can recall how Charlie lifted our spirits by pulling out his guitar and inviting everyone to sing along with him in a version of his most famous song “Quviasupunga” (I’m Happy). You can hear that well-loved song here.

In 2003, Charlie also played and panhandled for spare change in Montreal, where he lived homeless and slept on the streets. Then, in July 2004, he suffered a near-fatal accident when a car drove over him while he lay in an alley. “I was lying there sleeping. The first wheel passed over me and I started yelling to the guy because I’m in pain and all that, and the second wheel stopped right on top of my stomach,” Charlie told me by telephone from his hospital bed in Montreal following the accident. “The first wheel broke my pelvis, and my intestines went out through my rectum and my stomach.” I think of Charlie, the gentle, talented singer, on my walk to work.

Then, there’s a striking mural, painted by Craig Clark, on the wall of the late Iqaluit Mayor Jimmy “Flash” Kilabuk’s house. I remember when it was mounted in 1998 just before the Arctic Council ministerial held that year, an informal get-together in the Anglican Parish Hall that was quite unlike the security-laden, heavily scripted event of this past April.

Jessie Oonark, Father Mary and Abe Okpik. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Jessie Oonark, Father Mary and Abe Okpik, painted by Craig Clark. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The three huge panels — eight feet by seven and a half feet — feature portraits of famed Baker Lake artist Jessie Oonark, Pond Inlet’s long-time priest and historian, Father Guy-Marie Rousellière, and community leader Abe Okpik. Okpik, who died in 1997, was active in getting relief to Inuit in the 1950s and 1960s. He also worked on Project Surname, which brought names, instead of disc numbers, to Inuit in the eastern Arctic. When I spoke to Okpik in the early 1990s, he gave me a leather duplicate of the E-disc he had worn. I recall he was gracious and took time to explain everything to a young reporter, who didn’t then realize what an historic role he had played in the eastern Arctic. Thank you, Abe, for your time. It was an honour to meet you.

Ataata Mary, known for his exhaustive research on Inuit history and language, died in a fire in 1994,  two weeks before I arrived  for my first visit to Pond Inlet. I later read many of the works that he had published, and picked up some at second-hand book stores: they’re now at the May Hakongak Library in Cambridge Bay with the rest of my collection of Arctic books.

Jessie Oonark Ltd. in Baker Lake. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Jessie Oonark Ltd. in Baker Lake. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

I never met Oonark, who died in 1985, but I spent many hours in the Nunavut legislature during sessions, looking at a colourful wall-hanging that she had stitched of geese going in many directions at once,  which was on display in the chamber. And, in 2009, I visited Baker Lake, where I stopped by the arts and crafts centre that bears her name.

This wraps up my little introduction to the people whose images you can see on the buildings around Iqaluit.

Did you read my other posts about Iqaluit? You can find all the links here: Part 4: You know you’ve never been to Iqaluit/Frobisher Bay when… And are you curious about the Canadian Arctic of the 1990s? You will want to read my “Like an iceberg” series of blog posts. You can find all the links here.