Relaxed and ready, that’s Saganash, Nunavik’s new MP

Romeo Saganash, Nunavik’s new MP, shown here in a photo taken when he campaigned in Kuujjuaq last month, says he will meet with Inuit leaders in the near future. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Somehow during the frenzy of the New Democrat Party’s sweep through Quebec on May 2, Romeo Saganash, the party’s new MP for Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou says he felt relaxed.

“Throughout this campaign I’ve been patient and calm,” he told Nunatsiaq News May 3, “and it wasn’t any different last night.

“When my victory was confirmed, I was very happy.”

Saganash won with 45 per cent of the vote, unseating the incumbent Bloc Québécois MP Yvon Lévesque.

Saganash’s victory means that Nunavik has its first aboriginal member of Parliament. There, Saganash joins six other Aboriginal MPs in the House of Commons, included re-elected Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq.

Voter turnout for the riding was 53 per cent, although a breakdown for Nunavik and the riding’s other polls is not yet available.

In NDP leader Jack Layton’s speech May 2, he spoke about building a new relationship with Aboriginal and First Nations Canadians – an issue that is likely to become an important focus for Saganash.

Saganash says the NDP already had a strong voice in support of the federal government’s apology to residential school survivors and its slow but certain support of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“[The NDP] has already played a major role on these issues,” he said, “and as the official opposition, that role will be even more important.”

Shortly after his victory was declared, Saganash spoke to Cree chief Matthew Coon Come. Saganash said he’ll soon schedule a meeting with the Grand Council of the Crees – an organization he worked for over three decades to highlight the issues he’ll take with him to Ottawa.

“And I intend to do the same with Inuit and other leaders in the region,” he said.

Saganash celebrated his victory at a bar in Val d’Or, the riding’s main town and his campaign base, while he acknowledged the Conservative majority he will have to work against in the years to come.

“I can deal with that,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that (the NDP) will have an important role to play in Ottawa.”

Saganash, one of the most seasoned of the 58 NDP members elected May 2, says he has no concerns about his party’s team of new, inexperienced politicians heading to Ottawa.

“Even the young newly-elected members are university and doctorate students,” Saganash said. “We have a very good team going to Ottawa.”

The morning after the election, Saganash had yet to receive a phone call from any of his fellow candidates in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou.

It was a crushing defeat for incumbent Bloc Québécois MP Yvon Lévesque , whose party’s future remains in question after it was whittled down to just four seats.

Lévesque did not return an interview request from Nunatsiaq News.

But the riding’s Conservative candidate and long-time Senneterre mayor, Jean-Maurice Matte, who placed second to Saganash, said he is willing to work with the new MP.

Matte called Saganash an “important ally” although he is skeptical about what the NDP will do for the riding.

“The Conservative majority government is good news,” Matte said. “It will allow Harper to continue to build our economy.

“But [NDP representation] will make it difficult for our riding to make gains.”