Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Aug 06/03) - Three candidates have thrown their hats in the election ring, running to be MLA for the Nanulik riding.

Francis Mazhero, Patterk Netser and George Tanuyak will all be on the Sept. 2 ballot.

Mazhero and Tanuyak both live in Chesterfield Inlet and Netser lives in Coral Harbour.

The three are looking to fill the seat previously occupied by James Arvaluk who recently resigned after being found guilty of assault.

Mazhero has been living in the region since 2001.

The native of Zimbabwe moved to Canada after living in England for a number of years.

This will be his first real involvement in the political scene, he said and it is his plan to bring a strong focus on education.

"Right now we don't even have a Nunavut curriculum," said Mazhero, who holds a Ph.D in education.

He said his decision to run came after he received substantial support from the community.

"I wasn't going to run and when people found out I wasn't going to run they came and asked me to," he said.

After the byelection, only six months will remain in the government's term and Mazhero said he views that as a trial period to show the people what he can do.

"Give me six months and lets see what I can give and then you can decide whether or not you want me for four years," he said.

Netser, has lived in the North all his life.

The focus of his campaign is housing.

"What I would like to see the government do is spend more on homeowners," said Netser.

He said there is a need to assist homeowners with repairs to their houses.

"A lot of them go to the bank and get a loan, but their houses get old before the mortgage is paid out," said Netser.

He added that because many of the contractors built the houses to a poor standard they become run down and in need of repairs.

"These homeowners are on a very limited budget," he said.

Netser commended the government for the work they are doing on roads but said they can't stop there and need to focus on the private sector too.

Netser's political experience includes work with HTO and the Kivalliq Board of Education.

Tanuyak, who is the deputy mayor of Chesterfield Inlet, did not reply to written questions submitted to his office in Inuktitut.

He told Kivalliq News he could not conduct the interview in English and needed the questions in Inuktitut.