by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (June 2/97) - Nunavut voters have resolved, at least for the time being, one of the most divisive issues yet to confront those building the new eastern territory.

By an unofficial count of 2,662 to 1,978, voters turned thumbs down last Monday on the Nunavut Implementation Commission's recommendation to split the first Nunavut legislature evenly between male and female MPs.

The vote was close in both the Kitikmeot and Baffin regions -- a slight majority in Iqaluit even approve the measure -- but an overwhelming majority in the Keewatin rejected it. Controversy over the recommendation, which would have divided the territory in two-member ridings, first surfaced at the Cambridge Bay Nunavut leaders' summit, held in February.

Two camps formed around the issue -- NIC and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in one and Eastern Arctic MLAs and Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak in the other.

NIC and NTI originally wanted the recommendation implemented without voter approval. Anawak and the MLAs insisted on a public vote. At the eleventh hour, an NTI compromise gave the people of Nunavut a chance to express their opinion of the recommendation in the form of a non-binding plebiscite.

NIC chief commissioner John Amagoalik, who gave an impassioned plea for a Yes vote in an Eastern Arctic newspaper column days before the vote, ended the meeting with a prediction: "Eleven men and 11 women will be elected to the Nunavut legislature on Valentine's Day 1999," he said.

Amagoalik's prediction may still come true, but not through force of law. The controversy did not end there. NTI, NIC and the Inuit women's association, Pauktuutit, campaigned for a Yes vote.

Some said they were disturbed by the aggressive approach of the Yes side.

Aivilik MLA Manitok Thompson and others accused the groups of spending Nunavut money to tell the people which way to vote. Although NTI made $30,000 available for opponents of the measure, the offer was rejected on the basis it would be a waste of Nunavut voters' money.

Immediately following the vote, however, the main players were calling for peace.

"We recognize the issue of gender parity has been an emotional one over the past few months and would like to urge the people of Nunavut to come together as we have in the past, to move forward toward 1999," said High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas in the legislature last Tuesday.

Others, including NTI president Jose Kusugak, speculated that the proposal may have passed had the campaign lasted another couple of weeks. But with a voter turnout of less than 40 per cent, it seems unlikely that the idea of creating the world's first gender-equal legislature ever gripped the public's imagination.

Even without wide-spread interest, however, some of the rifts among the central figures in the campaigns will take a while to heal.

On Friday Martha Flaherty, president of Pauktuutit, called for Manitok Thompson to resign as Minister Responsible for the Status of Women.

"I and many other Inuit women feel you have used your elected office to put forward your personal views, which are contrary to your mandate to work toward the recognition and equality of women in the NWT," wrote Flaherty in a press release.

Thompson was the most outspoken opponent of legislative gender parity.

The defeat of gender parity means Nunavut will have double the amount of ridings it would have had if the recommendation had been approved.

At Cambridge Bay, leaders agreed the first legislature would be made up of between 20 and 22 representatives. Assuming the federal cabinet approves, each will now represent an individual riding.