MPs crossing the floor: A pivotal moment for Nunavut

The first in a three-part series on Peter Ittinuar leaving the NDP to join Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government and the fallout he faced

Three Conservative MPs recently made national news by crossing the floor to join the governing Liberal party in the House of Commons.

Party Leader Pierre Poilievre described such crossings as acts of “betrayal” and even as “immoral.” NDP MP Lori Idlout has been quoted as saying “not at this point,” when asked whether she was considering crossing the floor herself.

This is not the first time “floor crossing” has come up in the North.

The saga began when a young Inuk man from Rankin Inlet was taking flying lessons in Yellowknife in the late 1970s and was approached to run for MP in the riding of Nunatsiaq, now Nunavut.

Peter Ittinuar, son of Rankin elder Ollie Ittinuar and grandson of legendary polar explorer Peter Freuchen, had never considered running for federal office. But it was another pilot, the late Wally Firth, who represented the N.W.T. for the NDP in the federal Parliament, who persuaded the young Ittinuar to seek the NDP nomination.

Fast forward to the federal election in 1979, when Ittinuar squeaked out a narrow victory over two formidable elder opponents: Tagak Curley for the Liberals and Abe Okpik for the Conservative party.

But getting elected was not the first challenge facing the rookie MP: he was about to run into a brick wall in his mission to advance the cause of Nunavut.

In the 1979 election, Ittinuar had pledged to work for the establishment of Nunavut. And remember that in 1979, Nunavut was still a far-off dream which would take another 20 years of public votes and negotiations with two federal governments before the new territory was born in 1999.

But it was a vision of a new, brighter future which resonated with young voters in the riding, who were also no doubt attracted by election posters showing the long-haired Ittinuar looking like a rock star in his orange-framed election posters. (I was his official agent and one of his three-person campaign team in that election).

But Ittinuar’s disillusionment with the NDP started from the very top.

When he had his first “audience” with former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, he was meeting with a well-respected, well-educated Parliamentarian known for being a fighter for trade unions and autoworkers in particular in his Ontario riding of Oshawa.

And Ittinuar expected support from a party known for being a champion of human rights and empowerment of people, particularly working-class people.

Instead, when the young MP told the NDP leader that he wanted support to work for the creation of Nunavut, Broadbent said: “That’s a cryptic idea!” and then laughed.

Being laughed at for his passion was devastating to 29-year-old Ittinuar.

Without support from his leader for aspirations to create a new territory that had been gaining support since first formally proposed to the federal government in 1976, and as the first Inuk MP in Parliament, Ittinuar was crestfallen.

The Hon. Dennis Patterson represented Nunavut in the Senate from 2008 to 2023. He was premier of the Northwest Territories from 1987 to 1991 and played a key role in the Nunavut land claim agreement.