KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE
When Red Pedersen, a former cabinet minister and Speaker of the NWT legislative assembly, saw his family gathered at the Kugluktuk hamlet office last month, he suspected something was happening but he did not expect the honour he would receive.
Red Pedersen, left, received a Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal, an honour Senator Dennis Patterson presented him with in Kugluktuk on Feb. 20. - photo courtesy of Senator Dennis Patterson |
Senator Dennis Patterson presented the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal to Pedersen in Kugluktuk on Feb. 20. The medals commemorate the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne in 1952.
"I was surprised. I knew nothing about it," said Pedersen, 77. "When I saw them all up at the hamlet office, I realized something was going on. It was happy news and it was nice to see Dennis Patterson again."
A native of Denmark, Pedersen arrived in Canada in 1951, fist settling in Halifax, then Toronto before heading North in 1953. He was 17 years old when he started working as a fur trader for the Hudson's Bay Company's trading post in Cambridge Bay. The following year, he went to work at the Perry River trading post and became its manager in 1957. He then worked at the co-op in Cape Dorset from 1960 to 1964.
When Pedersen returned to Kugluktuk in 1969, he opened the Igloo Inn, started a taxi service and ran an arcade named the Funhouse. He also helped organize the first settlement council.
His territorial political career started in 1983 when he was elected as an MLA in the Northwest Territories legislative assembly. He was appointed to cabinet two years later and served as Speaker of the legislative assembly from 1987 until his retirement from politics in 1991. Pedersen worked with Patterson at the legislative assembly.
"I suppose it (the medal) means recognition to some of the things I've done over these past 60 years in Nunavut," said Pedersen. "It's an honour and I was very pleased about it, of course, and happy and thankful. Many other people have received it, of course, many deserving people, too. It was a happy day."
Pedersen has five children, 25 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and one great great-grandchild. His family is his greatest achievement, said Pedersen, and all those in Kugluktuk that day were present for the ceremony.
Baba Pedersen said everybody was proud of his father. He knew four or five days before the ceremony his father would get the recognition.
"I think he's very deserving and he's spent his entire life up in the North serving the people of the North," said Baba.
