by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (May 28/97) - If there's an equal number of men and women in the Nunavut government in April 1, 1999 it won't be because the system requires it.

A public vote on Monday saw 57 per cent of Nunavut's population vote against gender parity, according to unofficial results released by chief polling officer David Hamilton.

Of the 12,085 eligible voters in Nunvaut, only 4,668, or 39 per cent of eligible voters, came out to the polls. Of them, 2,662 said no and 1,978 said yes to dual representation.

Theresie Tungilik, spokeswoman for the Rankin Inlet group Qauliqtuq, which campaigned for the No side, was happy with the results Monday night. "It was a battle fought well, but for the peace of everyone," she said.

Even though gender parity was rejected, Tungilik said the debate leading up to Monday's plebiscite opened many eyes.

The vote also served as a boost for women in Nunavut, she said. "I think this will encourage more women to run now."

As the final results came in late Monday night, revealing a tip towards the No side, NTI president Jose Kusugak blamed the short campaign for the result. In a local radio interview, he called the plebiscite a learning experience more than anything else.

"The campaign has been very, very quick. It takes, I think, quite a bit longer to get an new idea like this across," said Kusugak.

"It takes training and education to develop these new ideas. People find it very hard to accept this kind of a new idea and trust that it is going to work. I think if you give it enough time to educate people we might have a different result."

Nunavut Implementation Commission chief commissioner John Amagoalik, a strong supporter of the proposal, refused to discuss the results Monday night.

The idea of gender parity emerged in the East following a discussion paper released by the NIC in early December.

At the Nunavut Leaders Summit in Cambridge Bay, February 16 and 17, the issue brought bitter debate.

The NIC and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. stood in full support of dual representation but Aivilik MLA Manitok Thompson had serious reservations. She insisted that gender equality was too fundamental a change to make without consulting the people.

Thompson argued that if women cannot run against men in the Nunavut legislature, women's rights would be violated.

By the end of the summit it was agreed a public vote would take place across Nunavut on May 26. Two sides soon emerged, one for and one against.

The Yes side, with the help of $50,000 in funding from NTI, began an information campaign. That money helped a Yes panel, consisting of Amagoalik, Pauktuutit president Martha Flaherty and elder and youth representatives tour the Eastern Arctic.

As the Yes side began to travel and advertise, campaigners for the No side emerged in Rankin Inlet and Igloolik.

Participants, mostly elders, utilized local radio and held small community meetings to get their point across. They refused promotional funding available from NTI, saying it was a "waste of beneficiaries money."