Explainer: How are Nunavut’s MLAs going to pick their next cabinet?

Fresh from the Oct. 27 territorial election, all of Nunavut’s newly elected MLAs — except one — will be in Iqaluit on Tuesday to take part in a process called the leadership forum.

It’s a rare exercise in Canadian politics and unique to consensus government, practised only in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

The forum is scheduled to go ahead despite the fact that only 21 of the territory’s 22 MLAs have been chosen, confirmed Dorcus Nattaq, administrative assistant to the clerk, on Friday.

A tie in the Aggu riding, which includes the northern part of Igloolik, resulted in a new election that is scheduled for Dec. 15.

That means whoever becomes Aggu’s representative will be relegated to a regular MLA role, and won’t have a say in who becomes Speaker, cabinet minister or premier.

What’s a leadership forum?

Newly elected MLAs gather at the legislative assembly, first to choose their new Speaker, and then a premier and cabinet members. There is no fixed number of cabinet ministers who can be picked, but it must be fewer than a majority of MLAs.

Who presides over the session if there is no Speaker?

That would be clerk Stephen Innuksuk.

During the 2021 leadership forum, former clerk John Quirke chaired the forum until Tony Akoak, the MLA for Gjoa Haven, was acclaimed as Speaker and took over.

As Akoak was the only person nominated, the process took only a few minutes.

Quirke retired in November 2024, and Innuksuk is now in the role.

How does the Nunavut premier get selected?

All candidates hoping to win the top job in the territorial government have to be nominated by another MLA. If they accept the nomination, they get 20 minutes to make a speech.

MLAs not nominated for premier will then have the chance to ask up to two questions to each of the candidates.

After that, they select their preferred candidate in a secret ballot.

How does an MLA become a cabinet minister?

The process is similar to the election of the premier: members are nominated by their colleagues, get up to 10 minutes to make a pitch and outline their priorities, and then they are chosen in a secret ballot.

Later, the premier will assign specific portfolios to the ministers.

Can a candidate decline the ministerial nomination?

Yes, but it’s rare. During the 2021 forum, out of 17 nominations only one person declined — Uqqummiut MLA Mary Killiktee.

As an Inuktitut speaker, she felt her English was not “good enough” to hold a ministerial role, Killiktee later said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News prior to the 2025 territorial election [she lost to Gordon Kautuk].

Why is Nunavut’s process different from the provinces’?

Nunavut inherited what is called the consensus-style of government from the N.W.T. when it officially became a territory in 1999.

That makes the two territories the only Canadian jurisdictions that don’t have the traditional Westminster-style assemblies where most members belong to a political party.

All Nunavut MLAs sit as independents and all decisions are made by a simple majority vote.

Are political parties part of Nunavut’s political system?

Commissioner Eva Aariak is Nunavut’s first, and so far, only female premier. (File photo by Mélanie Ritchot)

Technically, no. That’s the point of the consensus-style of government.

However, in 2007 some Kitikmeot leaders expressed dismay over what they called the “Government of Baffinland” and talked about creating a Bloc Kitikmeot, similar to the separatist Bloc Québécois in Parliament. But the idea failed.

Occasionally, regular MLAs — always outnumbering the government side — have formed unofficial opposition alliances, often with the goal of ousting the sitting premier. That happened in 2018 with the removal of Paul Quassa, and nearly happened to Premier P.J. Akeeagok in 2024.

Does the premier have to be Inuk?

No. There is no legal requirement, but so far, all Nunavut premiers have been Inuit.

Has a woman ever been premier?

Yes. The current Nunavut commissioner, Eva Aariak, was Nunavut’s second premier from 2008 to 2013.

Is it easier to get picked as premier if you’re from a particular region?

It shouldn’t be, but of the six Nunavut premiers so far, four were from Qikiqtaaluk Region with three of them representing different Iqaluit ridings.

Kivalliq and Kitikmeot have only had one MLA each at the helm of Nunavut government — for Kivalliq, it was Arviat’s Joe Savikataaq and from Kitikmeot it was Peter Taptuna of Kugluktuk.