Nunavut election candidates court the Kitikmeot

CAMBRIDGE BAY—With the Oct. 21 federal election approaching fast, candidates for the three leading parties in Nunavut recently hit the ground in western Nunavut in an effort to secure votes.

To gauge how their campaigns have gone so far, Nunatsiaq News caught up with the three women vying to become Nunavut’s next MP: the Conservatives’ Leona Aglukkaq, the Liberals’ Megan Pizzo-Lyall and the NDP’s Mumilaaq Qaqqaq.

Leona Aglukkaq: “Experience that delivers”

Leona Aglukkaq, the Conservatives’ candidate in Nunavut, stands in the Luke Novoligak Community Hall in Cambridge Bay where she attended the Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting. (Photo by Jane George)

Former Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq is no stranger to the campaign trail.

“When I get to the communities, I just kind of do my thing. It’s my fourth federal election, so I have a pretty good idea of what I have to get done on the ground,” Aglukkaq said.

For instance, when she arrived late one recent evening in Baker Lake, she looked at the various contacts that her supporters had supplied before she went to sleep.

“The first thing in the morning, at 8:30 a.m., I was out for my appointments. I went to the municipality, booked my radio show. Before that I visited as many as I could: I did a presentation at the school to high school students, then did my radio show and after dinner I did more door-knocking,” she said.

The high cost of living and the housing crisis are what Aglukkaq said she keeps on hearing about.

“The number one issue that keeps on coming up over and over and over: it’s affordability of housing, the lack of housing,” she said. “It’s an issue that has gotten worse not better.”

Aglukkaq said she’s also hearing people want a strong MP.

Running for the Liberals, Hunter Tootoo beat Aglukkaq in 2015, but in mid-2016, Tootoo’s political career was destroyed by scandal, after he admitted to a “consensual and inappropriate relationship” with a junior female staff member, and he left the Liberal party to sit as an Independent.

“My sense is from what I have heard from Nunavummiut is that they want a strong representation in Ottawa,” Aglukkaq said. “People have come up to me and said, ‘You have the experience, Leona. I am going to support you.’ That is what I am hearing on the ground, not so much about the national leaders, rather that we want a strong voice in Ottawa.”

That was also Aglukkaq’s message when Conservative leader Andrew Scheer visited Iqaluit in June.

But there’s a challenge—getting the vote out.

By the end of the campaign, Aglukkaq will have knocked on doors in about 20 of Nunavut’s 25 communities.

To do that, she’s travelled half by charter and half on scheduled flights: “sometimes you need to charter or you can’t get to the communities.”

“Campaigning in the largest riding of Canada is hard, with four languages and three time zones, you do what you can and you have to deal with the weather,” she said.

She declined to say how much is being spent on her election campaign.

Aglukkaq, 52, was first elected as MP in October 2008 and became the first Inuk to be sworn into the federal cabinet.

Aglukkaq earlier served in the Nunavut Legislative Assembly as the MLA for Nattilik.

Aglukkaq was first elected as MP in 2008, and again in 2011. During that period, she served as House leader, minister of finance, minister of health, minister of environment, minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, minister responsible for the status of women and minister responsible for the Arctic Council.

Aglukkaq sold her home in Iqaluit in 2017, but she moved back earlier this year, after declaring her candidacy. “I live in Nunavut and I was born and raised here.”

Megan Pizzo-Lyall: “Choose Forward”

Megan Pizzo-Lyall, the candidate for the Liberals in Nunavut, stands outside the future Nunavut Arctic College campus building in Cambridge Bay at the groundbreaking on Oct. 3. Pizzo-Lyall, among other things, also attended the Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting and spoke to high school and college students while in town. (Photo by Jane George)

Since launching her campaign in Iqaluit, during a visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Megan Pizzo-Lyall has been honing her skills as a door-to-door campaigner across the territory.

She’s travelling by scheduled flights, trying to maximize her $120,000 campaign budget, and along the way, she said she has been delayed by weather.

But before Oct. 21 she wants to try to get to as many communities as possible, although she’s been fighting a sinus infection.

So far Pizzo-Lyall said it’s been challenging but not impossible to get around Nunavut.

“If I don’t have something on the ground planned I will go to coffee shops … and I have knocked on a whole bunch of doors,” she said.

“I remember every community,” she said. “My favourite was Kugluktuk, where I had supporters in the community and they reached out so they made sure I was all set up: I landed, I dropped my stuff at the hotel and really quickly went to an elders lunch and then from there I was on the radio, and then, from there, we did a meet-and-greet when people were in the rec complex buying bingo cards.”

Many across Nunavut know members of Pizzo-Lyall’s large, extended family, so she said a lot of hugging is involved in her greeting people.

Having Trudeau come again to Iqaluit last week also added to her support among Nunavummiut, she said.

“They recognize that he took the time out his very busy schedule … he came and spent time here and it means something to people,” she said, adding that “he’s so excited to work with me, that we continue to work with the Liberal government.”

The biggest issue people have spoken to her about? It’s not climate change, largely spoken about by Trudeau: it’s elder care.

What’s really important to everybody is having elder facilities in their communities, she said.

At 31, Pizzo-Lyall still falls in the same large demographic of young territorial voters who she hopes will get out and vote on Oct. 21: “with me being younger, too, they know who I am. They understand. I think they are inspired and feel they need to vote.”

Pizzo-Lyall has ties to all three Nunavut regions. She was born in the Kitikmeot, growing up in Taloyoak and attending high school in Cambridge Bay.

As a young adult, she moved to Iqaluit for college and stayed for 10 years, during which time she served as an Iqaluit city councillor. She now lives in Rankin Inlet, where she works as manager of operations for the Inuit investment bank Atuqtuarvik Corp.

She also was a Jane Glassco Fellow for 2018-19.

Mumilaaq Qaqqaq: “For Nunavut”

Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who came to Cambridge Bay to campaign last week, stands with the North Warning System radar facility in the background. (Photo by Jane George)

Mumilaaq Qaqqaq said she was asked only about a month ago if she would run as a candidate for the New Democratic Party.

Now Qaqqaq, 25, is giving it her best shot.

The Inuit employment officer with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., now on leave from her job, has no political experience yet and admits she’s not much of a baby-hugger on the campaign.

But she is keen on politics: in 2017, under the name “Trina” Qaqqaq, she stood up in the House of Commons on International Women’s Day and received a standing ovation after she spoke about Nunavut’s suicide crisis.

Qaqqaq, who is originally from Baker Lake, started off her campaign with her father at her side in his home town of Qikiqtarjuaq.

During the course of her campaign, Qaqqaq has been to Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk and Rankin Inlet. She said she plans to wind up her campaign in Baker Lake.

In Iqaluit she attended a “mumiq (dance) with Mumilaaq” event at the Legion, which was promoted online with a strikingly designed poster.

But without much of a campaign budget—a spokesperson said “we don’t really know or have exact figures because fundraising continues to be steady”—more of her reaching out has been done online, where she maintains a social media presence on Facebook, where she does live feeds, and on Twitter.

We can become more food secure in NU. I’m committed to advocating for country food & harvester support to be added to Nutrition North. Imagine buying delicious tuktu and natsiq at the local store at an affordable price.—MQ #IlinnutPiliriavut #InItForYou #NDP #elxn43 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/0HYxpIZa3h

— Mumilaaq (@MumilaaqQaqqaq) September 30, 2019

Qaqqaq said her campaign has taken shape “on the fly,” with a small organization behind her.

During the past month, she said she’s experienced the “good, bad, beautiful and ugly.”

It can be difficult when people often ask her why she’s running when she is so young and doesn’t speak Inuktitut well, she said.

But when she’s out in communities, Qaqqaq carries her a message. It’s that “I hear you. I see you, and the federal government isn’t doing what it should be.”

As for the NDP, the party remains more well-known among non-Inuit, she said.

That’s although the first MP for the riding of Nunatsiaq ran for the NDP—Peter Ittinuar in 1979, who later crossed to the Liberals.

Qaqqaq said she would love to get her party’s leader, Jagmeet Singh, up here.

She said the NDP is the only party that will follow through with promises to Indigenous people on their needs for housing and mental health care.

“It’s been the same for 30 years. We still have too many people who are dying. It’s nice to talk, but we need action,” Qaqqaq said.

And, as a person of colour, Singh will approach Indigenous issues differently, because he’s experienced racism, she said.

For more information on voting in your community, go to the Elections Canada website.

Correction

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Aglukkaq spent 10 years living in Ottawa. In fact, she says she continued living in Nunavut until she lost her seat in Parliament.