Nunavut general election, 2008
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The 2008 Nunavut General Election was held on October 27, 2008, to return members to the
3rd Legislative Assembly of Nunavut The 3rd Nunavut Legislature began after the 2008 general election on October 27. The election returned 17 of the 19 non-partisan members with two deferred for other days. The last member returned in the general election in the Akulliq district on ...
. The election was contested across 15 of Nunavut's 19 electoral districts under the first past the post system of voting. Due to local circumstances, the election was delayed in two districts, and two districts did not hold elections as their incumbent MLAs faced no opposition and were acclaimed back into office. Ten of the 15 seats went to first-time MLAs, four of whom defeated incumbents. Premier
Paul Okalik Paul Okalik ( iu, ᐹᓪ ᐅᑲᓕᖅ, ; born May 26, 1964) is a Canadian politician. He is the first Inuk to have been called to the Nunavut Bar. He was also the first premier of Nunavut. On November 4, 2010, he was elected Speaker of the Legi ...
and Finance Minister
Louis Tapardjuk Louis Tapardjuk (born January 30, 1953 in an igloo northwest of Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada) was the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the electoral district of Amittuq from 2004 to 2013, having won the seat in the 2004 Nunavut electio ...
were the only two cabinet ministers to keep their seats. The political system in Nunavut is not organized along political party lines, but instead uses a consensus government model in which the
Executive Council of Nunavut The Executive Council of Nunavut or cabinet includes a Premier and eight Ministers and is elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly from among the Assembly members. The cabinet members provide the political direction and accountability ...
is selected by the members of the Legislative Assembly at the Nunavut Leadership Forum. At the 2008 forum, held on November 14, 2008, Eva Aariak was selected as the new Premier of Nunavut.


Pre-election

The election was proposed by
Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Paul Okalik Paul Okalik ( iu, ᐹᓪ ᐅᑲᓕᖅ, ; born May 26, 1964) is a Canadian politician. He is the first Inuk to have been called to the Nunavut Bar. He was also the first premier of Nunavut. On November 4, 2010, he was elected Speaker of the Legi ...
on March 14, 2008. The writ period under
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
law may last as long as thirty five days, so the earliest date the election could have begun was September 22, 2008. Prior to the official announcement the election had been widely speculated going back to late 2007, as the Premier had been openly talking about going to the polls.


Federal election

A portion of the writ period occurred during the
2008 Canadian federal election The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on October 14, 2008, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the 39th Canadian Parliament, previous parliament had been dissolved by Governor General of ...
. This is a rare occurrence as elections on the federal and provincial, territorial level in Canada are usually timed to avoid such occurrences. The last example of a concurrent federal and provincial election was the 1979 BC election and the 1979 Federal election. The voting date for those two elections was only 12 days apart.


Election infrastructure

Sandy Kusugak, the chief electoral officer for Elections Nunavut, announced at a press conference on June 4, 2008 that Nunavut will begin voting on October 13, 2008 with special ballots being made available at returning officers. Provisions are also being established to allow paperless voting by radio and satellite phone from very remote locations. On October 20, 2008 Elections Nunavut will conduct mobile polling visiting the homes of elders and people confined to their homes by disability or house arrest.
Absentee ballot An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online votin ...
s for students and inmates living or incarcerated outside of the territory will be made available by registration beginning on September 22, 2008. Official advanced polling will take place on October 20, 2008.


Issues

Prior to the election in the last sitting of the Assembly, members debated tightening up eligibility requirements for preventing persons convicted of criminal offences. The MLAs decided not to change any of the election regulations. A big pre-election issue in the capital city of Iqaluit developed over
Inuksuk High School Inuksuk High School is the high school of Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. History The school opened in late 1971 as the Gordon Robertson Educational Centre with 278 students and 28 teachers.Hume, Steve (October 12, 19 ...
. The government has been debating whether to build a new high school or do a complete renovation on the existing building.


Election summary


Election results

Nominations for candidates to file closed on September 26, 2008. There were two candidates acclaimed among the initial 46 candidates running. Both candidates acclaimed were seasoned incumbents. Tagak Curley was acclaimed to the riding of Rankin Inlet North for the second straight election. Incumbent Keith Peterson won his second term in office after his acclamation in the Cambridge Bay electoral district.


By-elections

Due to local circumstances, the election was delayed in two districts.


South Baffin

In the district of South Baffin, there were no candidates who filed by nomination day. The original writs were returned to the Commissioner and reissued for a new election to be held on November 3, 2008. The lack of candidates on election day surprised the constituency, causing former incumbent
Olayuk Akesuk Olayuk Akesuk (born 1965) is a politician from Kinngait, Nunavut, Canada. Akesuk was the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the electoral district of South Baffin from 1999 to 2008, having won the seat in the 1999 Nunavut election. He ...
to muse about coming out of retirement for another term if no one else wanted to step forward. Four new candidates came forward to file nomination papers by the new nomination deadline on October 3, 2008.


Akulliq

Former Member of Parliament and Nunavut MLA Jack Anawak attempted to file nomination papers to run for election in the electoral district of Akulliq. Chief Electoral Officer Sandy Kusugak ruled that Anawak was not eligible to run for office as he had a mailing address outside of Nunavut. Anawak took Elections Nunavut to court. The judge however ruled in favour of the decision by Kusugak that Anawak had not met the twelve month resident requirement, but under the Elections Act Kusugak was required to cancel the election. Although the judge ruled in favour of Kusugak's disqualification under the residency rule, Anawak's constitutional challenge was allowed to go ahead. Anawak had argued that the one-year residency rule was in violation of his charter rights. However, judge Johnson ruled that the rule did not discriminate against Anawak as an
Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...
. The election was rescheduled for December 15, with nominations being open until November 14. All of the original candidates, with the exception of Anawak, refiled for the by-election, as did one new candidate, Helena Malliki. In the initial results, former MLA John Ningark defeated incumbent MLA Steve Mapsalak by a margin of just two votes. A judicial recount was conducted, but resulted in Ningark and Mapsalak each receiving exactly 157 votes, thus forcing a second by-election. The revote was held on March 2, 2009, and Ningark won by a margin of 193 to 179 for Mapsalak.


Notes

* The member for Kugluktuk,
Joe Allen Evyagotailak Joe Allen Evyagotailak was born 15 July 1953 in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, Canada. Evyagotailak was the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the electoral district of Kugluktuk having won the seat in the 2004 Nunavut election. Evyagotailak i ...
, stepped down August 20, 2008, stating that he wanted to run for the presidency of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association (KIA). * On October 10, 2008, CBC North reported that Leona Aglukkaq was stepping down to run in the
2008 Canadian federal election The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on October 14, 2008, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the 39th Canadian Parliament, previous parliament had been dissolved by Governor General of ...
for the
Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...
. * Incumbent not running. * Eegeesiak's campaign was temporarily suspended by Kusugak after a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation found that she did not meet the residency requirements. A final
cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...
order was issued by Kusugak on October 23, 2008, removing Eegeesiak from the ballot. The order replaced the temporary order issued October 17.


References


External links


Elections Nunavut
{{Nunavut elections 2008 elections in Canada
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
2008 in Nunavut October 2008 events in Canada