Towtongie elected president of NTI

MIRIAM HILL

Cathy Towtongie didn’t sleep Monday night.

“I couldn’t,” she said the morning after she was elected president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the organization that represents the Inuit of Nunavut, implements the Inuit obligations of the Nunavut land claims agreement and makes sure all other parties meet their obligations.

“I’ve been after the presidency for eight years,” she said. “Eight long years. And I never strayed from the vision that the Nunavut land claims agreement was intended to benefit all beneficiaries.”

The by-election on Dec. 10 filled the position left vacant by former president Paul Quassa. The position of vice-president of finance, which Paul Kaludjak won handily, was also open.

The president’s post was far more hotly contested, with preliminary results showing vetaran leader John Amagoalik ahead for most of the evening. It wasn’t until about 2:20 a.m. EST that Towtongie was declared the winner.

Towtongie managed 1,700 votes, followed closely by John Amagoalik with 1,526. Jerry Ell posted 1,386 votes and Methuselah Kunuk tallied 1,000. Candidates Andrew Tagak and Rachel Qitsualik pulled in 314 and 409 votes respectively.

“It was a marathon race,” Towtongie said. “I thought it would have been Methuselah in Baffin. That name is a respected name. And I thought John would pick up in the central region.”

Towtongie said she knew once the results from Igloolik were posted that she was on her way gaining the vote-split she needed to win.

“I knew Methuselah Kunuk was from Igloolik and I knew people in Igloolik were going to vote for him,” she said. “I told the people at my home, I want Methuselah Kunuk to get 150 votes in Igloolik and I don’t want John to get more than 100. When Kunuk got 148, I knew then. Somebody from Arviat called to tell me Arviat or Chesterfield Inlet was going to make me win.”

It was Arviat, the last poll to be posted, that pushed her to the win.

Towtongie’s own community, Rankin Inlet, favoured Jerry Ell. Ell received 207 votes out of 460 votes cast, while Towtongie received only 134.

“I did not campaign in Rankin,” she admitted, to explain the results. “I was focused on other communities and I got blizzard-ed out of Rankin. I was in Arviat for three days with my husband. So that helped me.”

Towtongie stayed at home on election night with her husband, Harry, who kept her updated on the vote tallies.

“He came in and he had this smile and I glanced at him and said, ‘I won?’ his cousin came in and started screaming and I started hugging and hugging,” she said. “It was incredible.”

Nunavut’s beneficiaries showed far less enthusiasm in the turnout at the polls. Out of an eligible 14,218 voters, only 6,335, or 45 per cent, bothered to mark their Xs next to a presidential candidate’s name.

Towtongie said she didn’t know why there seemed to be such ambivalence in the voting public. “I really can’t say, but there have been a lot of elections — elections on top of elections.”

She did say the conduct of previous Inuit leaders was an issue and some of the other candidates didn’t address that in their campaigns.

“I made that an issue — that a leader has to conduct him or herself appropriately privately and publicly so Inuit people get respect in Canada and at the international level,” she said.

Towtongie has a plan to do that: “Honour our past, the traditional knowledge of the elders, but respect the future. I’m bicultural and bilingual. I take what’s good from my culture and what’s good from the present and balance it.”

Towtongie, who grew up in Coral Harbour and now lives in Rankin Inlet, completed the native law program at the University of Saskatoon and had been working at the Keewatin Legal Services Centre in Rankin before the election.

She has held various positions in Inuit organizations, including serving as secretary treasurer with the Inuit Tapiritsat of Canada.

In her new role as president — she was sworn in on Dec. 11, but planned to have acting president James Eetoolook continue in his role until after Christmas — Towtongie said she wants to examine the internal structure of NTI, from bylaw policies and procedures to resolutions, and make sure things are working the way in which they were intended.

“Paperwork, paperwork, a lot of paper work,” she said, chuckling.

She also plans to have an open-door policy and push for more partnerships between NTI and various agencies, organizations and levels of government.