Iqaluit (Sep 25/06) - With Afghanistan, crime and constitutional tinkering all looming large on Parliament's agenda, Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell isn't surprised Nunavut issues will have to fight to get on the political radar.

The House of Commons resumed for its fall session last week after a three-month break.

The war in Afghanistan and gun control in the wake of a shooting rampage at a Montreal college dominated question period last week, Karetak-Lindell said in an interview.

But she said it's a different story in committee, where the status of the Berger report on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was at the top of the agenda.

"We started off right away at our aboriginal affairs committee with a very relevant topic to Nunavut," she said.

Even though Prime Minster Stephen Harper visited Nunavut over the summer, Karetak-Lindell said the focus of Arctic sovereignty misses the social and economic concerns Nunavummiut have.

"Yes sovereignty is one of those issues that we could look at, but it's not the pressing, number one issue for people on the street," she said.

Karetak-Lindell said all three northern MPs, including Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington and Yukon's Larry Bagnell, must pressure the government to keep the North on the parliamentary agenda.