Standing on the side of the road in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, former MLA Jeannie Ehaloak looks around and sees several problems in her community that she wants to solve.
“We lost our arena, we lost our youth center, so there's a lot of vandalism and unrest going on in our community. Our youth are crying out for help,” she said.
She's not the only one concerned about future generations, and she sees this as a territorial election issue.
Cambridge Bay Youth Center program co-ordinator Darlene Agitak says youth don't really have a platform where they can engage in civic issues and tell politicians what changes they want to see. In her opinion, the creation of a youth committee could be a starting point.
“Youth don't really understand how government works and how their voice, their ideas, their opinions, their thoughts, their experiences impact us as a society,” she said.
Although Agitak believes that politicians need to interact more with all their voters.
“I would like to see more information about events in society in general,” she said.
“Like what's going on in education, what's going on with our culture… we need to make sure that there is some kind of public information, like a website or a page, so we can go and ask questions or drop our concerns.”
As someone who has sat in the Legislature, Ehaloak truly sees the need for politicians to better communicate with their constituents on issues that affect them. She now sees food insecurity and Arctic sovereignty as hot political topics.
“Not many people watch the Legislature online or read the news, so it's important to report what's going on,” she said.
“Make it cool” to vote
Voter turnout has declined in every election since Nunavut's creation as a territory in 1999.
Only 47.9 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2021 election, and some Iqaluit residents want to see that statistic change.
Tiina Kakkik says her family always voted and she plans to maintain this pattern.
“Voting was a fun thing for me and my dad along with our late uncle and we just plan to keep going,” she said.
Qaqqiq believes transportation and mobility are barriers to some people's access to polling places to vote. However, she also blames apathy among some Nunavummiut as a reason for low voter turnout.
To solve the problem, she believes politicians need to “make voting cool.”
“I think we'll just make it a trend and start a movement about how great it is to be out there getting your votes,” she said.
Maggie Amarualik says she didn't care much about voting in her early years. But as Nunavut continues to face health and housing challenges, she believes Nunavummiut of all ages need to vote and and speak out their future.
“Please, young people go vote and it will be good for our future.”
Election day is set for October 27.
