Chrétien appoints Jack Anawak as Arctic ambassador

After five bruising years as Nunavut MLA and cabinet minister, Jack Iyerak Anawak is moving back to the federal civil service – as Canada’s circumpolar ambassador.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been in politics for a long time and I was looking for a change,” Anawak said Tuesday, as the announcement was being made official at the Office of Privy Council Office.

Anawak will serve as MLA for Rankin Inlet North until Jan. 19, when his new post begins.

As the federal government’s senior Arctic civil servant, he’ll represent Canada at meetings of the eight-nation Arctic Council, and likely participate in at least some of the Arctic Council’s many committees and projects.

Anawak replaces Mary May Simon, Canada’s first circumpolar ambassador. Simon, who held the job since 1994, resigned as of Oct. 31.

It’s not clear right now to what extent Anawak’s job description might differ from Simon’s.

But this past Tuesday evening, Anawak got a taste of what his new post will entail, when he dined with Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and diplomats representing the countries Clarkson will visit on the second phase of her circumpolar tour early in the new year- Greenland, Denmark, and Norway.

“I sure hope my appointment goes through by tonight,” Anawak joked as he prepared for the event.

Anawak’s appointment is likely to please groups such as the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which feared the federal government might dilute the status of the job by simply giving it to the ambassador responsible for whatever country happens to be chairing the Arctic Council.

Since the chairmanship of the Arctic Council rotates from one country to another every two years, such an arrangement would give Canada a different Arctic ambassador every two years.

In a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham in September, Duane Smith, ICC’s Canadian vice-president, recommended that Ottawa appoint a northerner with experience in aboriginal and circumpolar issues – and that the Arctic ambassador’s role be expanded.

For his part, Anawak says appointing an aboriginal person is a good gesture for the government to make.

“I think it’s very important that they appointed an aboriginal person, whether it be Inuk, First Nations or Metis – and also, somebody who understands the Arctic,” Anawak said.

Anawak’s appointment is likely to be one of the last ones that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien will make before Dec. 12, when he makes way for Paul Martin, the new federal Liberal leader.

In Anawak’s first stint as a federal civil servant, he served from April 15, 1997, until January 1999 as Interim Commissioner of Nunavut, heading the transition team that hired Nunavut’s first group of senior civil servants and prepared Nunavut’s first budget.

In January 1999, he quit the interim commissioner’s job to contest the Rankin Inlet North seat in Nunavut’s first general election. He won the seat in a narrow decision over Lorne Kusugak and the late Louis Pilakapsi.

Though Anawak was highly touted for the Nunavut premier’s job, Anawak’s bid, weighed down by years of political baggage accumulated during his years as Liberal MP for Nunatsiaq between 1988 and 1997, never took flight.

MLAs rejected Anawak and turned to the young and relatively unknown Paul Okalik, but still chose Anawak to serve in Nunavut’s first cabinet. At various times he served as minister of justice, minister of community government and transportation, and minister of culture, language, elders and youth.

But he was never entirely at ease serving in Okalik’s government, and sometimes it showed.

After numerous clashes, in public and behind closed doors, Okalik stripped Anawak of all cabinet portfolios this past February in the midst of a dispute over moving public works jobs from Rankin Inlet to Baker Lake.

In March, MLAs voted to remove him from cabinet, but not before Anawak stood in the house to accuse Okalik and his government of forsaking the original vision of Nunavut.

But even before that, Anawak was reconsidering his future. “It started when my home in Rankin Inlet almost burned down and I started thinking about leaving politics.”

And over time, Anawak found he couldn’t protect family members from being drawn into Nunavut’s sometimes bitter political controversies.

“I have a thick skin, but when your family members get affected by it, it’s time to leave.”

Now, Anawak said, he’s looking forward to leaving the constrained life of an MLA, and starting a new career where he can deal with big ideas and large visions.

“Before, I represented one little constituency called Rankin Inlet North, now I will be representing Canada to the world.”