Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
NNSL (Mar 01/99) - A judicial recount that took place in Kugluktuk last Tuesday has confirmed the election of Donald Havioyak to Nunavut's first legislative assembly.
Honourable Justice V.A. Schuler conducted the recount and found that Havioyak had indeed beat out Ida Ayalik-McWilliam by a total of six votes.
Under the Nunavut First Elections Act, a returning officer is required to apply for a recount if the number of votes separating the candidate with the most votes from any of the other candidates is less than two per cent of the total votes cast in that riding.
In last week's edition of News/North, Nunavut resident and political activist Jose Kusugak offered his analysis of the results in each riding. His views on Kugluktuk were held until the judicial recount had been conducted. Kusugak's comments on the results in that riding were:
"I can only go by what (my wife) was saying about that race. She was really hoping we would have a woman representative from Kugluktuk and I totally agree with that, not to take anything away from Donald Havioyak.
I say that because there was an opportunity for people of Nunavut to have gender parity and they didn't want that. People looked at that seriously and voted Donald Havioyak because they think that Donald Havioyak has done very well as a mayor of Kugluktuk. He had proven himself that way more so than Ida.
I think the Ida votes were there as well. In this election when it was focused on trying to get as many women in as possible, it was hard to take your mind off that. You got to take that kind of assessment when you're talking about the woman candidates unfortunately. I think the Ida number would have been a little lower possibly, but they were that high because of that woman factor. I don't mean that negatively in any sense of the word, but I think it's a reality."
New Nunavut phonebook
NorthwesTel gave a sneak preview of its 1999 Nunavut telephone directory at the trade show in Iqaluit last week.
Mark Hickey, the assistant vice-president for Nunavut, handed out about 200 copies of the directory that features an Inuktitut/English directory for the Nunavut communities followed by an English-only directory for communities in the Western Arctic.
With a more formal release planned for the end of March, Hickey said the photo montage of Nunavut children on the front cover celebrated the birth of the new territory. Featuring the work of Northern photographers Bill Belsey, Lyn Hancock, Nick Newbery, Tessa Macintosh and Tim Atherton, the art work is said to depict the future of Nunavut and its traditions and values.
Yeehaw -- one month to go
In just one short month, the residents of Nunavut will be kicking up their heels and celebrating the official birth of their new territory.
And thanks to the Nunavut Implementation Commission, there will be no shortage of formal events and hopping activities to participate in across the territory.
While an announcement concerning a GNWT financial contribution to help subsidize the celebrations in each of the communities in Nunavut is still forthcoming -- it was announced last month that western communities would each receive $5,000 towards their celebrations -- several non-governmental organizations and corporations are helping to foot the bill.
"Nunasi Corporation and NTCL have indicated they will be making contributions and the NorthWest Company has come in as a corporate sponsor to the evening gala and made money available in their stores across the new territory," says Bert Rose, the celebrations co-ordinator for NIC.
The Qikiqtani Inuit Association also announced last week that it had plans to contribute $500 to each of the communities in the Baffin region and while all of the donations help ease the financial burden, the cost of the big celebration in Nunavut's capital will be enormous.
"How do we keep this thing scaled proportional to the historical significance of it, but at the same time, respect the fact that we haven't got infinitely deep pockets. Nobody wants to create an event that bankrupts the government," says Rose.
A large part of the expenses of the big day come from transporting about 1,000 invited guests into the capital and staging different shows around town.
Along with the fireworks show, the swearing in of the judges, the RCMP and the MLAs, a protocol show gets under way at 11:30 a.m., followed by an evening gala at the FOL site in Iqaluit.
Including the ceremonial signing of a document that welcomes Nunavut into confederation, the protocol show will also see the new flag and coat-of-arms unveiled and will include Nunavut Tunngavik's communion of arrival.
"The protocol show is an opportunity for Canada to acknowledge the creation of the new territory. It comes into existence by law, but the show is simply the opportunity for a formal ceremony of creation," says Rose.
The evening gala includes a two-hour play on the history of Nunavut and several performances by Northern entertainers have been scheduled.
Rose says that most of the planning has been completed and that a small group of people will make all final decisions as their deadlines approaches.
"All of the wheels are spinning. It's a question now of keeping them spinning and driving towards April 1."
More information and a schedule of events is available at www.nunavutcelebrations.com.
