July 7, 2000
VALERIE G. CONNELL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — "Snow!" said Heather Urquhart of Moncton, N.B.
"No trees," said her mother, Carol, as the plane in which they were flying began to descend into the airport in Iqaluit. "What have we got ourselves into?"
Urquhart said those were her first thoughts when she saw Iqaluit from the air as their plane began to descend, but after she got into Iqaluit, she thought differently.
"I’m pleased to be here," she said. "Wouldn’t miss this."
The Urquharts are one of six families from different parts of Canada who came to Iqaluit as part of the federal government’s Celebrate Canada in the Capitals program.
The provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were represented by people in the group visiting Iqaluit for four days over this year’s July 1 Canada Day holiday.
The contest gave another family a chance to get together from opposite ends of the country.
Samantha McLaine of Dartmouth, N.S. won the contest on the Internet.
"I spend six hours a day on the Internet," she said. "Just clicked onto it."
"Sam" included her sister, Stephanie, also of Dartmouth, and their mother, Victoria Hudson, of Calgary, Alta. They met in Ottawa on their way to Iqaluit. The family is originally from P.E.I.
"They were there first," Hudson said. "Just pulled up at the curb and there they were like two little lost puppies waiting on the curb."
On their arrival in Iqaluit, the group gathered together over lunch in the board room at the Parnaivik building, and were welcomed by Iqaluit Mayor Jimmy Kilabuk.
They were given an orientation to Iqaluit, a schedule of their four-day stay, tee-shirts, pins, and flags before getting acquainted with their host families.
Over their four-day stay the group attended a reception and dinner with the Iqaluit’s mayor and council; participated in a feast and cultural afternoon hosted by the elders centre; attended a barbecue in Apex, participated in the Canada Day Parade and celebrations, hiked in Sylvia Grinnell Park, and toured the Nunavut Legislature.
Celebrate Canada in the Capitals is national exchange program sponsored by the Canadian Capital Cities Organization and the National Capital Commission.
Participants are chosen in a contest that runs for a month. Ballot boxes are placed around and on the Internet. Then the ballots are sent to Ottawa and picked at random, said Matthew Spence, an Iqaluit town councillor.
He said that this year there were 78,700 entrants in the contest and that 169 families of four people each were selected as participants in the four-day trip to one of Canada’s 13 capital cities.
"[I was] just looking on [the] Internet, filled out forms and won," said Pierre Côté, a participant from Quebec City.
Thirteen families left Iqaluit June 29, each on their way to one of Canada’s capital cities. It is the third year in which people from Nunavut has participated in the program by sending families out to other capital cities.
Capital cities, with the exception of Iqaluit and Yellowknife, are hosting 13 families from different parts of Canada. Yellowknife and Iqaluit are hosting only six each.
"We didn’t feel comfortable hosting 13 families and it’s our first year bringing people in to Iqaluit, Spence said.
The group arrived June 29 and stayed in Iqaluit until July 3.
"We are just delighted to be part of this," said Dorothy Culliford of Kitchener, Ont., one of the participants.
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