Gloria Uluqsi wins NTI presidency
Iqaluit-based candidate earns 3,541 votes in 10-candidate byelection
Gloria Uluqsi is the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. after Wednesday’s presidential byelection. Voter turnout in the race was 72.4 per cent. (Photo courtesy of Gloria Uluqsi)
Gloria Uluqsi will be the new president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. after garnering 19.6 per cent of the votes in Wednesday’s presidential byelection.
NTI announced the unofficial results of the race on its webpage overnight Wednesday.
The organization is responsible for upholding the rights of Inuit beneficiaries under the Nunavut Agreement.
Ten candidates came forward in the race, which was called earlier this year after former president Jeremy Tunraluk resigned from the role. He was a little more than a year into his term, after being elected in December 2024.
Uluqsi is originally from Whale Cove but now lives in Iqaluit. She has held senior positions with the territorial government, Nunavut Arctic College and Qikiqtani Inuit Association. She is also a former Grade 1 Inuktitut teacher.
She ran a campaign focusing on many issues including housing, Inuit education and training, and support for elders.
Voter turnout in Wednesday’s election was 72.4 per cent, NTI said in the news release announcing the winner. This is the highest turnout in several years.
NTI introduced a voucher program ahead of its 2024 presidential election that promised $100 to any eligible voter who showed up to the polls, and rolled it out again for this week’s byelection.
Before the vouchers were offered, in 2021, voter turnout was 17.5 per cent. Participation grew to 66.7 per cent in 2024, when the incentive was in place.
Uluqsi earned 3,541 votes, which was 908 more than her closest competitor Paul Irngaut, who brought in 2,633 votes. Behind them was Samuel Alagalak, with 2,270 votes.
Community-level voter turnout ranged from a high of 87.4 per cent in Coral Harbour to a low of 45.4 per cent in Pond Inlet.
Uluqsi will serve as president until December 2028.
Anyone who has worked with Gloria knows how caring, hard-working, and smart she is. This is a wonderful opportunity for the NTI and all the lives it affects (Inuit and non-Inuit alike).
Congratulations Gloria! The people have chosen wisely!
Tungaviusigavit numavummiunut inuktitut uqausivut kaillualiruk.
Here’s the spot to guide Nunavut. Strengthen inuktitut language forward.
Welp there goes any hope of a highway and train from Resolute Bay to Grise Fiord. Congrats to Gloria, the only one that had a real platform to work with.
Dammit! I was really hoping to get my groceries here in Cam Bay from the Mary River grocery distribution centre as well!
I wish her well and good luck trying to rebuild NTI into something meaningful for all over Nunavut.
And we won’t see those magnificent 40 km long bridges either. How could people pass on such a thing?!
Best of luck to her. She’ll need it.
No Criminal Record – Check.
Educated – Check.
No unseemly past financial or legal controversy – Check.
No wild and silly promises – Check.
Positive, inclusive messaging – Check.
Young – Check.
For all the pre-vote talk about Inuit only voting to gain 3 packs of smokes, it now seems clear that Inuit have actually managed to muster our considerable critical thinking skills to make an informed, rational, and objectively wise choice for this position.
While many focus on congratulating our well deserved new President on her win, I cast my focus and well wishes on us ordinary Inuit of Nunavut.
This could have been our 2016 or our 2024, which is always a risk. We resisted this and made our little democracy work for the good.
It only gets better and bigger from here. Thank you and congratulations, fellow Inuit.
Yup. And she will, for the most part, be stuck trying to steer a board of insecure, uneducated and deeply sexist bobbleheads, always eager to cut her down to size.
I genuinely wish her all the best and hope she surrounds herself with the most competent Inuit and advice she can.
As a voter, I find the pressures our politicians have to go through is so bad, when we as a territory is still so young, yes we have had our ups and downs, in Nunavut.
But as a citizen of Canada and Nunavut, it’s our duty as citizens to vote, not get paid to vote, we look so bad…..Here is your $100 bucks for half a bag of noodles or couple packs of smokes.
Congrats! to Gloria,
Well done , and may you not be like leaders before you who only look out for themselves,
and there own families, forgetting us beneficiaries.
Don’t know about any one else, but I get so annoyed at freeloading leaders and there
B. S. photo ops
I would like to see a schedule of dividends for all beneficiaries not just the
Edmonton Eskimos
Congratulations please be true!
Congratulations…
Long-term planning… what will Nunavut be like in 60 years…?
What food will be available…?
How much knowledge will it take to succeed.?
Good luck… and thank you…
Congratulations Gloria.
I knew from the first time I worked with you that your future was bright. You always wanted to help your fellow Nunavutmuit and I am sure you will do well in this position.
I wish you great success in your work for Nunavut.
Thank you so much Gloria for acting so swiftly and doing the right thing on your first week in office, a lot of us were holding our breath to see if you would follow through with making a much needed change at NTI, job will done!
Thank you Gloria for making such a quick decision to make changes at NTI, you are showing leadership from day one, starting off on the right foot.