Iqaluit’s number one woman: Elisapee Sheutiapik

Elisapee Sheutiapik has what it takes to come in first. The mayor of Iqaluit readily confesses she’s into “firsts:” she’s the city’s first Inuk female to serve as mayor.

There are a few other things you should know about this woman: she loves her family and sports, collects arts and crafts, and is a successful businesswoman.

In Sheutiapik’s office, her love of hockey is displayed in an array of photos featuring Jordin Tootoo, her nine year-old son Iola, who plays on Iqaluit’s Peewee Blizzard hockey team, and spouse Brian Twerdin, the team’s coach. There are also dozens of lapel pins she’s collected as souvenirs from Arctic athletic events. Carvings fill every shelf and even dangle from the ceiling.

But don’t be fooled by the cozy decorations in this office: Sheutiapik, at 39, is a cool and organized woman, who has already made a name for herself in the male-dominated world of city politics since she first ran for municipal office a little over two years ago.

Then, she went from being a political nobody to winning a landslide victory in a municipal council by-election. Not long into her new political career, she replaced another councilor as deputy mayor and a year later defeated the incumbent mayor John Matthews, edging him out by 40 votes.

After Sheutiapik’s election as mayor in November 2003, many immediately wanted her to run in the territorial election a few months later.

“Being new at this, of course, it boosted my confidence,” she admits. “But once I got the mayorship, for me it was a commitment.”

Instead, Sheutiapik spent last year’s territorial election period volunteering on a successful campaign to re-elect Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco, learning the ropes of campaigning and how a candidate can win an election one vote at a time.

Sheutiapik is a careful study — which is why she is where she is today, the only female mayor of any capital city in Canada, and a local success story. She grew up in Iqaluit, and, like many of her generation, was obliged to leave school early.

“My mother couldn’t afford to feed everybody. I felt for her. I had a summer job at Northmart and as much as I loved school, I decided to start working.”

She was only 14. Over the next few years, Sheutiapik worked her way up, becoming a waitress at the Navigator hotel’s coffee shop and then a clerk at its front desk. She took upgrading classes to improve her mathematics and English skills. She jumped over to the Government of the Northwest Territories to work as a revenue clerk, changing jobs every year or so, upgrading her position and even asking for a transfer to a lower position so she could work in the territorial capital of Yellowknife and acquire more on-the-job experience.

After being laid off from the GNWT because of budget cuts, Sheutiapik took a break in Ottawa, became a mother and landed a new job with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. By April 1, 1999, she was back in Iqaluit.

Sheutiapik then decided to take a chance on another opportunity: she used her annual vacation travel allowance from her job at NTI to buy the Grind and Brew coffee shop.

Her customers started to share their beefs about how the city was run. Before she knew it, Elisapee put her name up for a municipal council seat, won it and decided she liked being in city hall after all.

When she ran for mayor the next year, 2003, and won, she found herself with an almost all-new city council.

Three unilingual Inuktitut-speaking Inuit came on to the new city council —offering Sheutiapik an opportunity to incorporate more Inuktitut and Inuit traditions into the municipal government where English and non-Inuit had always predominated. She tried to tone down the petty disputes, anger and frustration that had so often characterized city council proceedings.

“I think you accomplish so much more by talking rather than yelling,” she says. “I remind people that things don’t happen overnight.”

Being a woman is both an asset and a disadvantage in the mayor’s job. On one hand, it allows Sheutiapik to encourage causes and groups that help children, women and the disadvantaged, but not everyone welcomes their new female mayor with open arms.

“There are a few people out there who don’t support me. It surprised me. I’m a person who’s always done things as an individual, not because I am a woman.”

Iqaluit women interviewed last year for a project on women’s involvement in municipal politics complained they face sexism and racism in municipal politics. They said they’re not comfortable with the jargon used in meetings, feel guilty for leaving their kids at home and feel men dismiss their opinions because they’re Inuit or speak Inuktitut. They said non-Inuit consider Inuit as “simple or naive, incapable of understanding complex municipal issues.”

Elisapee says she’s still working to change these perceptions — from inside city hall.