Harper named Danish honorary consul

Kenn Harper, the Iqaluit historian, businessman, former teacher, and Nunatsiaq News columnist, was named Denmark’s honourary consul for Nunavut last week by Poul Erik Kristensen, Denmark’s ambassador to Canada.

In an interview with Embassy, an weekly Ottawa newsmagazine that covers diplomatic and foreign policy issues, Kristensen said the purpose of Denmark’s new consulate in Nunavut is to develop circumpolar co-operation and to maintain cultural ties between Nunavut and Greenland.

In the same article, Harper said one of his priorities will be to work towards the restoration of scheduled air services between Iqaluit and Nuuk.

Greenlandair pulled out of the route in the fall of 2001, and at the same time, First Air decided that they couldn’t afford to offer a scheduled Iqaluit-Nuuk service on its own.

Since then, travellers going to Nuuk from Iqaluit have been forced to either use expensive charters, or take a circuitous route through Ottawa, Boston, Reykjavik, and then Greenland.

Kristensen said fisheries, polar bear conservation, sustainable energy and the environment are other areas that the new honorary consulate will work on.