My Little Corner of Canada: A humbling experience

JOHN AMAGOALIK

What can we say? It was a humbling experience. We thought we had a good chance of convincing enough people that this is a good idea. We tried. It wasn’t enough. Perhaps if we had one more week to make our case or had more time to visit more communities. If the vote had not taken place during the spring. Perhaps the result might have been different. But we’ll never know. And we are not about to cry over sprilled milk.

We would not be truthful if we did not admit to feeling some pain and sadness. We would be lying if we did not admit to feeling betrayed by some of our colleagues who waffled under pressure. And, yes, we even feel a little bit angry towards some people who made ridiculous statements about us and our ideas. But time will heal.

Those of us who stood by this proposal make no apologies for bringing it forward for debate. We have no regrets about where we stood. We are at peace with our conscience.

The No side has won. I hope they will ask themselves a few years down the road just what kind of victory this was. As for us, there will always be a little bit of sadness whenever we think about what could have been.

The debate and the voting is over. The people have spoken. Unlike the separatists in Quebec, we accept the verdict of the people. It is time to move to other things. It is time to get back on our qamutik and resume our journey to Nunavut.