The old and the new

On Monday, May 26, Nunavut voters must look deep inside their hearts and minds to make what for many will be a tough decision.

That decision, of course, is over how to organize Nunavut’s legislative assembly.

The choice is between the old and the new. If you like the Nunavut Implementation Commission’s new way, you’ll vote Yes. If you prefer the old way, you’ll vote No.

The new way, set out in a proposal that the NIC released two years ago, would divide Nunavut into 10 or 11 electoral districts.

All voters in each electoral district would elect two members. One member would be elected by all voters from a list of males, and another member would be elected by all voters from a list of females.

After each election, Nunavut’s legislative assembly would have 20 or 22 members. Half would be men; half would be women. That’s why it’s called the “gender parity” proposal.

The old way would divide Nunavut into 20 or 22 electoral districts and all voters in each district would elect one member from one list of candidates. That list could turn out to be all male, all female, or a mixture of the two.

As in the NIC’s proposal, the old way would give us a legislative assembly with 20 or 22 members. All of them could turn out to be male; all of them could turn out to be female.

However, common sense tells us that for the forseeable future, this would likely continue to give us a legislative assembly in which most members are male, and only a few are female.

Each system would cost the same amount of money. That’s because each system would give us 20 or 22 members and the size of our legislative assembly stay the same.

And if we choose the new way, but discover later that we don’t like it, we’ll have the means to bring back the old system.

There are differences, however, in how easily each system could be carried out.

For the purpose of electing members to the current Northwest Territories legislative assembly, Nunavut is already divided into ten electoral districts.

That means the NIC’s proposal, which requires the creation of only ten or eleven electoral districts, would be a little easier to carry out ­ there’s already a model to work from.

If voters choose the old way, Nunavut’s 26 communities will be divided into 20 or 22 electoral districts. That means a more radical and more difficult redivision of Nunavut’s electoral map.

The issue sitting uppermost in the minds of nearly all Nunavut voters on Monday, however, is how to best ensure that men and women sit in equal numbers in Nunavut’s legislative assembly.

The NIC’s proposal would, of course, guarantee that. And almost everyone now agrees we need more women legislators.

But there are many who say that the two-member, one-man, one-woman consituency proposal isn’t the best way. They say it’s demeaning to women to give them the extra help implied in the NIC proposal.

There are many other complexities within the debate, too.

Most supporters of the new way say a legislature containing equal numbers of males and females would represent a return to the days when the survival of the Inuit depended upon brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, men and women working together.

And they say it represents a return to the spirit of the Inuit past when the work done by men and the work done by women ­ different though it may have been ­ was equal in value. They believe it affirms the principle that male and female human beings are also equal in value.

On the other hand, supporters of the old way assert that the NIC proposal violates tradition by creating an artificial distinction between male and female human beings.

Unfortunately, Nunavut’s leaders weren’t able to decide on the issue, even after more than two years of discussion. They’ve left it up to you.