Say what? MLAs talk polar bears, elephants and chickens

This story is the second in a series about Nunavut’s sixth legislative assembly through an analysis of Hansard, the official record of debate in the legislature. Stay tuned for more stories covering the previous government’s most-discussed issues.

Nunavut is a land of hunters. It’s a place where animals are part of almost any conversation — from daily chatter to political statements.

Caribou are the most popular animal among MLAs of the sixth legislative assembly. (Created by Arty Sarkisian)

“This is our hunting ground,” Iqaluit Mayor Solomon Awa recently said of U.S. President Donald Trump’s musings about overtaking the Arctic.

Awa called Trump’s words a Western urge to “build a fence and say, ‘This is my cow now.’

“Well, there are no cows here. We have caribou.”

Animal references also pop up in Nunavut’s legislative assembly, with MLAs bringing up issues faced by different species or simply using them as a metaphor to make a point.

“We hit it hard, but I also feel we ran like chickens with no heads on our shoulders,” former family services minister Margaret Nakashuk told the sixth assembly, describing her department’s work to improve the care of children who end up in the territory’s foster system.

As a new group of legislators starts the first sitting of the seventh legislative assembly this week, Nunatsiaq News looked back at 145 Hansard documents covering the previous assembly’s record of debate, between 2021 and 2025, to find out how animal talk shaped political conversation.

Caribou were the most talked about animal, with at least 532 mentions at the assembly, mostly from MLAs worried about changing migratory routes or the decreasing populations of various herds.

Sometimes, though, an MLA would dedicate their member’s statement to his or her family’s personal hunting gains.

“I hope she continues to harvest caribou with lots of back fat,” Baker Lake MLA Craig Simailak told the assembly, of his daughter’s first successful caribou hunt in November 2022.

Caribou are closely followed by Arctic char and seals in the number of mentions.

Polar bears — the most ubiquitous Arctic symbol — are in fourth place with just 175 mentions.

They are far ahead of grizzlies, however, which had 17 mentions — two of them referring to The Grizzlies, a 2018 film based on a real-life lacrosse team in Kugluktuk.

Sea cucumbers — a signature Sanikiluaq treat — were mentioned twice by the community’s MLA Daniel Qavvik, who wondered if the Nunavut government could provide support for the creation of commercial fishing in the hamlet.

MLAs were also keen on animal metaphors, mentioning several “elephants in the room” and a “couple of ways to skin a cat.”

Legislators had two “beefs” in the last four years — once it was ground beef and the other time it was a metaphorical beef between former Arviat South MLA Joe Savikataaq and then-health minister John Main in 2023 over a delay in the approval of long-term care facilities in Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit.

“That is the biggest beef I had, the fact that the exact same project could have and should have gone ahead,” Savikataaq said in November 2023.

Turkeys also got an honourable mention from Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes, who questioned Main about Thanksgiving Day power outages in Iqaluit in 2024.

“My turkey was almost done. But it all worked out OK,” he said.