Better communication, engaging youth among top issues for Nunavummiut headed to the polls

Standing on the face of a route in Cambridge quest, Nunavut, former MLA Jeannie Ehaloak looks around and sees several issues in her community of interests she wants addressed. 

“We've missed our arena, we lost our youth centre, so there's a lot of vandalism and mischief going around in our community. Our youth are crying for help,” she said. 

She’s not the only one concerned about future generations and she sees it as a territorial election issue.

Cambridge Bay’s youth centre program co-ordinator, Darlene Agitak, says youth don't really have a platform where they can engage in civics and tell politicians what change they would like to see. In her view, creating a youth committee could be one place to start.

“Youth, they don't really understand how government works and how their voice, their ideas, their opinions, their thoughts, their experiences affect us as a society,” she said. 

Though Agitak believes politicians need engage more with all their constituents.

“I would like to see more communication on the happenings of the community as a whole," she said.

"So like what's going on in education, what's going on with our culture … making sure that there's some sort of public information like a website or page, so we can go in and ask questions or drop off our concerns.” 

As someone who’s sat in the legislative assembly, Ehaloak does see a need for politicians to better communicate to their constituents about matters that affect them. Right now, she sees food insecurity and Arctic sovereignty as hot political topics. 

“Not a lot of people watch the legislative assembly online or read the news, so it's really important to communicate what's happening,” she said. 

Voter turnout, with each election, has declined since the creation of Nunavut as a territory in 1999.

In the 2021 election, only 47.9 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, and some people in Iqaluit want to see those statistics turned around.

Tiina Kakkik says her family has always voted and she plans to keep that pattern alive.  

“Voting has been a fun thing for my father and I to do with our late uncle and we just plan to continue on,” she said. 

Kakkik believes transportation and mobility are barriers for some people to access polling stations to cast their votes. However, she also she sees apathy among some Nunavummiut as a reason for low turnout rates.

To address that, she thinks politicians have to “make it cool” to vote. 

“I think we just make it a trend and we start this movement of how excellent it is to be out there making your votes,” she said. 

Maggie Amarualik says in her earlier years, she didn’t really care about voting. But with Nunavut continuing to face issues with the health care and housing, she believes it’s imperative for Nunavummiut of all ages to vote and and have a say in their future. 

“Please, young people go vote and it will be a beneficial for our future.”

Election day is set for Oct. 27.

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