'The policies of the Green Party resonate with me.'

Peter Ittinuar, a veteran Nunavut politician with five years of experience as a member of parliament, is giving a lot of thought these days to the idea of running for the Green Party in Nunavut.

"The policies of the Green Party resonate with me," Ittinuar, 57, said in an interview this week with Nunatsiaq News.

Running in what was then called the Nunatsiaq riding, Ittinuar won two elections to the House of Commons for the New Democratic Party in 1979 and 1980, then crossed the floor to join Pierre Trudeau's ruling Liberals in 1982.

At 29, Ittinuar was the first Inuk to be elected to the House of Commons, and one of Canada's youngest sitting MPs. One of his most memorable tasks was working to ensure that aboriginal rights were included in the Constitution Act of 1982, an effort that earned him a national profile.

But in the 1984 general election, the Nunatsiaq Liberal Association rejected his candidacy, and Ittinuar ran as an independent, losing to Thomas Suluk of the Progressive Conservatives. Ittinuar later served as an assistant deputy minister in the Government of Nunavut's former Department of Sustainable Development.

Since 2002, he's worked for Ontario's Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, where he works as a land claims negotiator. He commutes to his Toronto-based job from his home in Brantford, Ont.

Earlier this year, Ittinuar contested the Green Party nomination in Brant, a constituency located near his current home.

"I did it as a lark, really. I was talked into it by some friends and just put my name in," Ittinuar said.

Because of his demanding job in Toronto, Ittinuar had no time to campaign among riding association members, but still finished second in the nomination vote.

Along the way, Ittinuar developed a strong admiration for the Green Party, saying he likes their environmental policies but also supports their policies on a broader range of issues, such as the economy, health care, and transportation.

"They're more than a one-issue party," Ittinuar said. "If I were to leave a job that I love and run for office, it would be for the Green Party."

He also admires the Green Party's leader, Elizabeth May, who was campaigning last week in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, where she will run against Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

"She's a strong and articulate leader. Elizabeth May is very assertive in an intelligent way," Ittinuar said.

But he said that although he and Green Party officials have discussed the idea of him contesting the Nunavut seat in the next federal election, he is not ready to make a final decision.

He said that's because he must first think about his family and his job, and to ensure that there's a "safety net" waiting for him should he run and lose. He said, however, that his employer is willing to grant him a leave of absence.

All the same, Ittinuar said he's working on a proper Inuktitut term for "Green Party."

Camille Labchuk, the Green Party's press secretary at their Ottawa office, said if Ittinuar decides to seek the Nunavut seat, he would likely have to go through a nomination process run by a Nunavut Green Party riding association.

It's not clear if a Green Party riding association actually exists in Nunavut. Ittinuar said, however, that he has been in contact with people in Nunavut who are in the process of forming a "small association."

Labchuk also said Nunavut's seat on the Green Party's federal council is now vacant, but will likely be filled in a vote to be held among party members later this month.

The Green Party has run candidates in Nunavut since the federal election of 2000, when their candidate that year, Brian Jones of Cambridge Bay, finished last with 4.5 per cent of the vote.

In 2004, Green Party candidate Nedd Kenney, who now works for the Government of Nunavut, finished with 2.9 per cent. In 2006, Feliks Kappi of Rankin Inlet finished last with 5.9 per cent of the vote.

Nationally, the Green Party enjoys strong support in public opinion polls – from 10 to about 13 per cent – but it's not clear if that would be enough to win them any seats in a federal election.

It's also not clear when the next federal election will be held. New legislation sets a fixed date of Oct. 19, 2009, but a federal election could be held at any time if the minority Conservative government falls before then.

The only firm candidate in Nunavut for the next federal election is Kirt Ejesiak of the Liberal party, who beat out Rankin Inlet mayor Lorne Kusugak at a nomination meeting this past March.