NTI CEO Kilikvak Kabloona acclaimed as Nunavut’s Liberal candidate
Federal election set for April 28
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. CEO Kilikvak Kabloona is running as a Nunavut candidate for the Liberal party in the April 28 federal election. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. CEO Kilikvak Kabloona is joining the race for Nunavut’s seat in Parliament as the Liberal party’s candidate.
Kabloona’s acclamation was announced Tuesday on the Liberal Party of Canada website.
She has served as the CEO of NTI, the organization mandated to represent the rights of Nunavut Inuit, since 2018.
Kabloona has taken a leave without pay between March 28 and April 28, or whenever the election results are official, Annie Thomlinson, NTI’s acting communications director, said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
Hannah Uniuqsaraq, NTI’s director of self-determination, will be acting CEO in that time.
Prior to working for NTI, Kabloona served as associate deputy minister for the Government of Nunavut’s secretariat created in 2015 to respond to Nunavut’s suicide crisis.
Kabloona also worked as a political adviser to two premiers and two cabinet ministers.
The Liberals were the last major party to announce a Nunavut candidate for the April 28 election.
Incumbent NDP MP Lori Idlout is seeking re-election to the position she first won in 2021.
Qulliq Energy Corp. vice-president James Arreak was announced as the Conservative candidate over the weekend.
Brennan Wauters is running for the Green Party in Nunavut. The party has not released any other information about Wauters’ candidacy.
“Some of our candidates run small campaigns, giving voters the opportunity to vote for the Green Party,” said Rod Leggett, Green party spokesperson, said in an email, noting that Wauters is one of them.
Nominations for candidates in the federal election are open until April 7, according to Elections Canada.
This is the most awesome thing ever!!! Kilikvak thank you for doing this! You are the most qualified person to do this because you understand what needs to be done and have seen what goes on behind the scenes between the Inuit Organizations and both the GN and the Federal Government. I hope you win!!!
The sycophants are queuing up fast for this one…
This is awesome Kilikvak! Congratulations on your nomination for the Liberals! You will do great things for Nunavut and Inuit if you are elected, you know exactly what is needed in order to make Nunavut a better place! Good luck!
Given that she knows “exactly what is needed to make Nunavut a better place” we might reasonably expect her accomplishments at NTI to reflect that.
What have we seen from them? More specifically, what have seen from her?
I would be happy to see her go from NTI as she has made NTI more of a government too full of bureaucracy and very colonial way of doing things. At the same time if she gets in as our MP I would be concerned too but at least she would stay in Ottawa where as CEO of NTi she spends more time there then in Nunavut.
The hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding from the feds that NTi has been sitting on for 4-5 years now that does not get out is a travesty, too few have knowledge of this but I am not surprised as NTI does not communicate what they are doing anymore and Inuit are in the dark about their own organization that has so much funding that can help the people and communities.
Hopefully the new President can make some changes and start getting all these funds out and start using them and be more open and accountable to beneficiaries and communicate more on where NTI is at today.
To really benefit Nunavut we need to vote her in to get her out of NTI.
You advocate the “institutional Nunavut solution” to incompetence and malfeasance; in the real world people are removed, not transfered
Perfect, everyone in this territory knows NTI accomplishes almost nothing. Infrastructure money, nothing. Housing money, nothing. Do you think perhaps it’s also because their CEO accomplishes very little?
Why on earth would we want the CEO of a do nothing organization to represent us. I don’t understand.
I’m not saying yay or nay to the liberal party I’m just looking at NTI and their lack of activity or accomplishments under her CEO tenure.
I can understand her wanting to jump ship from the sinking NTI boat though, at least that part adds up.
With Kilikvak taking a temporary leave, this moment presents an opportunity for NTI to reflect, strategize, and explore new pathways for growth considering the backlog she has created along with the poor communications and toxicity. This period can be a time of innovation and progress!
She better pay us $100 a vote again!
How ironic is that NN is removing comments with any negative connotation about a Liberal candidate. The Liberals, who claim to support free speech, prove how thin skinned they are. Incidentally, this solves who has been directing NN to purge negative comments about NTI for the past few years.
Leave it to a Conservative to start spouting off about conspiracy theories. Given the stupid comments that regularly get posted in the NN comments I highly doubt NN is censoring anything outside of cusses and slurs.
Looks like NN is deleting comments, I wonder if they’ve received a call from their master, or what is it this time?
Nunavut is better suited to align itself with the liberal party which is projected to win and form government. Nunavutmiut have an opportunity to elect a Nunavut liberal MP and have a chance at a cabinet posting.
Yes this paper is censoring the comments. Anything that is negative about this candidate is being deleted. Nunatsiaq News is acting like Trump.
If they were censoring comments why would they let your comment about censoring comments be posted?
NTI outlined a four-year strategy that includes $280 million in funding aimed at providing affordable rental housing for inuit in Nunavut to address the housing crisis. Transparency lacking, staff will be benefiting not communities.
Survey results highlighted several key areas when they assessed the needs:
Affordable Housing 67%
Supportive Housing 30%
Home Ownership and Capasity Development 3%
No one is more up for the job of MP than Kilikvak! A tour de force when it comes to the boardroom and talk about chutzpah! Karen could cut glass with her eyes. She knows how to take things seriously. She is also the most civic minded person I have ever met, no one cares more about community than Kilikvak.
One time we were planning a community luncheon in Sanirajak. Some of our country food wasn’t delivered on time. NTI happened to be in town for meetings and Kilikvak got wind of our misfortune. As soon as she heard, she went out by honda to catch a caribou so that we would at least have that. Within a couple hours, Kilikvak came speeding back into town, tuktu in tow. It was already basically butchered and ready for us. Not only that, she caught a couple fish and gave those to us too. Our luncheon the next day was a smashing success thanks to Kilikvak. I will never forget that and I know who I will be voting for on April 28th.
I totally agree with you Tommy, Karen has the proper experience with all forms of government in NU that she could actually do something worthwhile for us. Especially since the Liberals are expected to be successful again. We need to make sure that we actually have a MP that is a part of the lead government so that we can have things happen in NU. Despite what people say she does care about Nunavut and Inuit and she would be the best choice for Nunavut.
Understated sarcasm is the best kind of sarcasm.