Greenlanders are no radicals

The article “Radical Greenlanders call for new election,” in the Dec. 14 issue, was not of the quality I have come to expect from your newspaper. It needed more (and more informed) analysis, and less phrase-mongering.

Take this sentence: “The move to boost (the equivalent of MLAs’) salaries and benefits caused the radical left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit Party to bolt from the coalition and it incited radical young Greenlanders to march in protest and take their call for a general election to the streets.”

What exactly is “radical” about the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party? The IA Finance Minister has championed privatization of key elements of the largely government-owned economy — is that “radical?” IA was the only party to vote against the obscene salary increases — is that “radical?”

As for the students, they collected 10,000 signatures on a petition demanding a new election (that’s more than one-third of the number of people who voted in the last election!) and held a couple of entirely legal and peaceful demonstrations — is that “radical?”

If young people here ever develop that level of interest in Nunavut politics, I hope you won’t dismiss them as “radical!”

The evolution of Nunavut’s neighbour to east is of interest to many of us. It deserves to be covered with the same level of insight and attention to detail with which you strive to cover our own politics. Perhaps a correspondent who actually lives there and has a sense of what is going on — and why — is required?

Jack Hicks
Iqaluit
hicks_jack@yahoo.com

Editor’s note: When Inuit Ataqatigiit was founded more than two decades ago, its members described themselves as a “revolutionary Marxist” party — hence the use of the word “radical.”