Two small-business owners win Iqaluit council seats

DENISE RIDEOUT

Coffee-shop owner Elisapee Sheutiapik and restaurant-owner Doug Lem are Iqaluit’s newest city councillors.

The two came out on top in the city’s byelection, held on Nov. 4 to fill two council seats that have been vacant for months.

Sheutiapik and Lem beat out seven other candidates vying for the two spots.

Sheutiapik, who owns the Grind and Brew cafe, came out on top with 432 votes.

Lem, who runs Chicken and Ribs, Nunavut Catering and Northern Lights cafe, followed behind with 356 votes.

The other candidates, a mix of longtime residents, newcomers to Iqaluit, professionals, government employees and former council members, didn’t fare nearly as well.

The official results were:
• Marje Lalonde – 148 votes
• Gideonie Joamie – 132 votes
• Nancy Gillis – 106 votes
• Robert Billard – 85 votes
• Brad Hall – 61 votes
• Alden Williams – 53 votes
• Tom Bragard – 40 votes

The voter turnout was 31 per cent. Of the 2,440 Iqaluit residents who were eligible to cast a ballot, only 754 did so.

Some residents and candidates commented there was little election fever in the capital city.

While candidates had a little more than a month to campaign, posters and billboards slowly started popping up just two weeks before the byelection.

Two days before voting day, candidate Brad Hall took his campaign high in the sky. Hall, who works at Ninety North Construction Ltd., climbed in a crane that lifted him above the Four Corners. He waved to a group of pedestrians who gawked up at him.

Despite this and other campaigning efforts — the nine candidates, some Iqaluit residents were still in the dark about the byelection.

Candidate Sheutiapik and her official agent, Hannah Uniuqsaraq, spent most of their campaign time telling residents the simple facts. “The hardest part was informing people that there was actually an election going on and who was running,” Uniuqsaraq said.

But their campaigning paid off. Sheutiapik took more votes than any other candidate.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Nov. 4, Uniuqsaraq, who had been staked out at the polling station, called Sheutiapik with the good news.

Sheutiapik, her husband Brian Twerdin, Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco, and several Grind and Brew employees set up a make-shift campaign headquarters at her cafe.

When Uniuqsaraq phoned with the election results, Sheutiapik let out a giggle, turned to the group and announced, “She said I got the most votes.”

The news sparked a round of applause and a lot of cheering. Sheutiapik then called her seven-year-old son Iola, who said it was “cool” that his mother had won.

Soon after, Uniuqsaraq ran into the cafe, the official results in her hand. “It was so nerve-wracking,” she said of the wait at the polling station.

Sheutiapik, who ran on a platform of improving life in the community and focusing more on Iqaluit’s youth, was ecstatic about the win – and a little relieved. “My stomach is not doing flip-flops anymore,” she said with a smile.

Candidate Doug Lem’s celebration was a quieter one. He spent the entire day working and was heading to bed when he received the news of his win.

“I was really busy all day. Work kept me busy and kept my mind off the election,” he said.

This will be Lem’s second time around as a city councillor for Iqaluit. He sat on council from 1997 to 2000.

Some residents questioned Lem, who now runs three food businesses in town, whether he really had time to devote to city council. He responded “I always say if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.”

In his election campaign, Lem said he wants to tackle many of Iqaluit’s social problems, including homelessness.

He’s keen to get started.

“I know there’s going to be the forced growth issues to deal with, like garbage and paving. But I still want to put the social issues on the table,” he said.

With their win, Sheutiapik and Lem will fill two council seats that have been conspicuously empty for months.

One seat has been vacant since December 2001, after councillor Mathew Spence left Iqaluit to live in Yellowknife. The second seat was left empty in August when councillor Simon Nattaq resigned.

Lem and Sheutiapik will be officially sworn in at the next council meeting, scheduled for Nov. 12.