Herb Nakimayak will remain president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada until 2030, after winning an election Tuesday in Iqaluit. (Photo courtesy of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami/Facebook)
Herb Nakimayak elected president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada
N.W.T.-based leader to serve in role until 2030
Herb Nakimayak will remain president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada after he was elected Tuesday to a four-year term.
The council announced its presidential election results overnight Tuesday in a news release, following the organization’s annual general meeting in Iqaluit. He ran against Kilikvak Kabloona.
Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada is part of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which was established in 1977 and promotes Inuit interests on an international level. As ICC Canada president, Nakimayak represents the country on the ICC Executive Council, alongside leaders from Alaska, Greenland and Chukotka.
He will serve as president until 2030.
Nakimayak was appointed interim president of ICC Canada in September 2025. He followed Natan Obed, who served in the role on an interim basis after Lisa Koperqualuk resigned in March 2025.
Originally from Paulatuk, N.W.T., Nakimayak has served as ICC vice-president of international affairs and as an executive council member for ICC, starting in 2014. He also served as a Northwest Territories MLA from 2015 to 2019.
He now lives in Inuvik.
ICC also held a nomination period for the position of vice-president of international affairs, but nobody came forward. A new nomination period and election for that position will be announced shortly, the release said.
Congrats Herb , let make the North Pole great again !!
Thank goodness, the better choice by a mile.
On matters international a refresher: the US is losing its status at the premier power on the world stage, in its haste to salvage the status it is doing its all to divide us S and W. It is with or without Canada’s okay that we are reluctantly in the W alliance. The ICC is in a position to break.away from that preset stand and have dialogue with our northern neighbours much to the chagrin of the US and it’s military industrial biz.
E and W vs S and W