The race is really on in Nunavut

Well, that escalated quickly!

A week after bemoaning the sluggish state of the federal election campaign in Nunavut, an exciting competitive race to be the territory’s only member of Parliament has shaped up.

Toward the end of the campaign’s first week, the NDP’s Lori Idlout was the only declared candidate. It was back in October 2023 that the first-term MP secured her party’s nomination to seek a re-election to the position she won in 2021.

Now she’s joined by Conservative, Liberal and Green candidates, meaning four of the five parties represented in the House of Commons have candidates in Nunavut. (The Bloc Québécois obviously is not fielding a candidate in this riding.)

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties are offering up well-known community leaders to challenge Idlout. It suggests that all three parties see the riding — which has elected NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPs over the past 20 years — as winnable.

The Liberals picked Kilikvak Kabloona, CEO of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., while the Conservative standard-bearer will be James Arreak, a vice-president at Qulliq Energy Corp.

The Green Party’s candidate is Brennan Wauters, who appears to be from British Columbia.

The news that Arreak and Kabloona had joined the race was greeted by Nunatsiaq News readers — as you might expect — with a mixture of approval and criticism. The NDP, Liberal and Conservative candidates have been in public life for years and have track records that Nunavummiut are aware of.

It’s encouraging to see a strong field of candidates on the ballot for the April 28 election. Nunavut voters appear to have good options — professionals with experience in management or government.

However, all of that might be overshadowed because of the dynamic of this particularly unusual and high-stakes election.

Party leadership — who Canadians want as prime minister — often has more to do with how people vote than who their local candidates is.

One issue is dominating the campaign across the country — who is best able to manage the once-stable, suddenly shaky relationship between Canada and the United States.

Will that be the case in Nunavut? Will the debate about whether Liberal Leader Mark Carney, Conservative Pierre Poilievre or the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh can stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump overshadow important issues specific to Nunavut?

Some of the issues Nunavut candidates should be talking about is the fate of the Inuit Child First Initiative, the affordability of food and the effectiveness of the Nutrition North program, how to ensure adequate and affordable housing, and how to deliver what Premier P.J. Akeeagok and NTI have described as “nation-building” projects like the Grays Bay road and port.

But there’s a big risk the national media will naturally focus on Canadian-American relations and the impact tariffs will have on the North American economy.

Nunatsiaq News will try to steer the discussion to what’s important to northerners — including how Trump could affect Canada-U.S. relations.

Now that there’s a full slate of candidates, we look forward to hearing from them and sharing their views with you.