Dennis Patterson’s appointment to the Senate “puzzling and disconcerting”

The appointment of Dennis Patterson to the Senate is puzzling and disconcerting.  After Harper promising that we wouldn’t appoint Senators as he was seeking Senate reform, he appoints a non-Inuk who lives in Vancouver to represent Nunavut in the upper chamber?

I understand Mr. Patterson is well-known and well-respected in Nunavut, and I know he has held several positions with the GN and the GNWT.  His competency is not in question (not by me anyways, I’ve never met him.)
 
Stephen Harper talks a big game about “Arctic Sovereignty” with lofty rhetoric like “use it or lose it” seemingly ignorant of how offensive that sounds to many Nunavummiut. 

He makes showy and expensive re-announcement trips through the Arctic more for the benefit of southern Canadians than for anyone who lives north of 60. 

By appointing a non-Inuk Vancouverite to sit as Nunavut’s senator, Harper has squandered any goodwill he earned for appointing Leona Aglukkaq to the federal cabinet.
 
Were there no respected Inuit big-C Conservatives in Nunavut?  And if not, why not?
 
There will be those who remind me that Mr. Patterson is a long-time northerner who has been elected several times, and others who will ask me why race should  matter in 2009. 

To them I can only reply by asking if they think Article 23 is an important component of the NLCA.
 
Robin Anawak
Ottawa