Liberals, Conservatives announce candidates for Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut
Two new candidates have been announced to compete against NDP nominee Lori Idlout in the race to become Nunavut’s next member of parliament.
Pat Angnakak will be running to represent the Liberal Party, and Laura Mackenzie will run on behalf of the Conservative Party.
Mackenzie, a bilingual Inuk woman raised in Rankin Inlet, has worked in public service for over 15 years, mainly as director of economic development and transportation programming.
On her Conservative Party candidacy page, Mackenzie says that if elected, she would focus on the need to find funding for housing, mental health and trauma informed therapy.
Angnakak is a sitting two-term MLA in Nunavut. She was elected to Nunavut’s legislature in 2013 and re-elected again in 2017 where she was named minister of health, and later housing, before being stripped of the housing portfolio in what Premier Joe Savikataaq characterized as a breach of cabinet confidentiality (though Angnakak disputed that characterization).
Angnakak was born in Kinngait, formerly known as Cape Dorset, and moved to Iqaluit in 1980. She is fluent in both English and Inuktitut.
So far, Angnakak has not publicly resigned from her role as the MLA for Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Canadians go to the polls on Sept. 20, here’s the northern candidates so far, CBC News
Norway: Are Norway’s energy policies caught between ‘black gold’ & green ambitions?, Blog by Marc Lanteigne
United States: Biden admin goes back to drawing board on oil leasing in Arctic Refuge, Alaska Public Media
