November 26, 1998
Nunavut gossip mill works overtime as MLA candidates jockey for position
Will Nunavut voters have to choose between the Anawak camp and the Arlooktoo camp?
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
YELLOWKNIFE — There are signs that seats in the first Nunavut legislature will be widely contested in every region, and the very real possibility of an all-out premiership race in everything but name once the election campaign starts on Jan 1.
Government insiders say two separate political camps have already started to evolve behind the scenes, with NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng and other Nunavut MLAs joining undeclared candidates in support of Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo's ambition to become the Nunavut territory's first government leader.
A second camp is rumored to be forming behind Interim Commissioner Jack Anawak, although the Nunavut's senior civil servant has not publicly stated his interest in running for office.
Goo's machine is ready
Arlooktoo has been putting together an election machine for the last two months, and already has a campaign manager, a fundraising director, a speechwriter/policy advisor and an official agent already in place.
"We're ready to go. We're ready to turn the lights on January 1," Arlooktoo told Nunatsiaq News.
Arlooktoo's campaign team includes Iqaluit businessman Alain Carrier.
Arlooktoo added his voice last week to a chorus of groans emanating from the Nunavut caucus following the announcement that hamlet leaders from across the territory had been invited to Iqaluit for a conference on community government and housing issues.
Arlooktoo attacks OIC conference
In a bit of pre-election posturing, Arlooktoo even accused the interim commissioner of overstepping his jurisdiction in calling the meeting.
"The interim commissioner's office is for administrative purposes only," Arlooktoo said. "They are not there to deal with policy issues.
"It doesn't make sense. Either leave it for the new MLAs, or at least the MLAs who are here now."
Even Aivilik MLA Manitok Thompson, the NWT's minister of municipal and community affairs, was left in the lurch, learning about the Nunavut community government conference in a press release.
With the exception of a handful of incumbent Nunavut MLAs, though, few people are talking openly about getting their names on the Feb. 15 ballot.
Few candidates go public
Observers say that's because most would-be candidates who declare their intentions too early in the game risk exposing themselves to attack before the campaign officially begins.
Of the four Nunavut MLAs who have publicly declared their intention to run, at least three would support Arlooktoo as premier in the first government, insiders predict. These include Ng, Thompson and High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas.
Anawak, a former Liberal MP for is rumored to have the support of several prominent Keewatin residents who are also being touted as possible MLA material: Glen McLean of Baker Lake; Lorne Kusugak, of Rankin Inlet; and Kono Tattuinee, vice-president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, said to be planning to run in Arviat.
Peter Kritiqalliq, chairman of Nunavut Trust and mayor of Arviat, confirmed this week that he will seek election to the first Nunavut legislature, too, stepping up the pressure to oust Kevin O'Brien.
Right now, O'Brien represents the Kivallivik constituency, which is made up of Arviat and Baker Lake.
O'Brien has not formally said he's planning to seek re-election, though.
In an interview at the Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife last week, Arlooktoo sounded coy about his aspirations to lead the first Nunavut government, noting that his first job will be to win the support of the communities in his own constituency, Cape Dorset and Kimmirut.
"There's no doubt I am being courted, by people in the street, people in government – the odd MLA, maybe a minister – and quite a few people in aboriginal organizations," Arlooktoo said.
Under the consensus form of government, the 19 MLAs elected next February will select a government leader and cabinet ministers from among themselves.
In a preview of what his campaign platform may look like, Arlooktoo said he will push for continued financial restraint, and an agenda in the legislature that is less obsessed with the government's own employees.
"The House has acted here as an extension of the UNW or the NWTTA. That's going to have to change," Arlooktoo said. "The plight of the poor, the hunters, I hope, will become campaign issues.
"Everybody needs to realize that the ways of the past and the benefits packages of the past are gone. And we need to find new ways of doing things."
Picco still thinking about it
In Iqaluit, which has three separate constituencies, the list of undeclared candidates rumored to be running is growing very long, and includes incumbent MLA Ed Picco, who so far has not publicly acknowledged his interest in re-election.
Some of the other names being bandied about within the rumour mill are Mary Wilman of the Nunavut Social Development Council, businessman Bob Hanson, Qikiqtaaluk Corp. employee Abraham Tagalik, town councillor Mathew Spence, former Iqaluit MLA Dennis Patterson.
Exposure to criticism – and guilt by association with the GNWT – will be one of the hazards facing all incumbents, especially cabinet ministers.
But Ng, a seasoned veteran of three NWT elections, who faces criticism for presiding over the deterioration of the North's health system, maintains that his experience will serve the Nunavut government well.
Finance Minister Kelvin Ng?
Although the health portfolio isn't a job he would be anxious to keep, Ng suggested in an interview with Nunatsiaq News that he would gladly accept the finance portfolio.
At home, though, Ng could face the ire of constituents unhappy that their MLA has been so preoccupied with his cabinet duties that he is rarely seen in Cambridge Bay.
"That's always the downside of being a cabinet minister. You don't have all the time to spend in your constituency," Ng admits.
The list of contenders rumored to be waiting in the wings in Cambridge Bay includes Cambridge Bay Mayor Wilf Wilcox, Larry Aknavigak, Beatrice Bernhardt and Kane Tologanak.