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From: C-upi@clari.net (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.world.gov.politics,clari.world.americas.canada.general,clari.world.americas.canada
Subject: Election gets under way in Nunavut
Keywords: international, US government, state government,
	non-usa government
Organization: Copyright 1999 by United Press International (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Ucanada-nunavutURhvo_9FF@clari.net>
Lines: 54
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 12:53:55 PST
Location: Canada
ACategory: international
Slugword: canada-nunavut
Threadword: canada
Priority: regular
Format: regular
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Note: (UPI Focus)
Xref: news.cs.columbia.edu clari.world.gov.politics:49288 clari.world.americas.canada.general:7564 clari.world.americas.canada:12816

  	  				 
	IQALUIT, Northwest Territories, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Voters in Canada's  
frozen north are trekking to the polls to elect the first Legislature of 
Nunavut, the new territory that comes into existence on April 1. 
	A total of 71 candidates are competing for 19 seats in the new  
Legislature, that will represent the 25,000 people in the territory, 
mainly Inuit. 
	Today's election comes after a 30-day campaign, in which candidates  
braved temperatures of minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 Celsius), 
to go door to door to the voters. 
	With no political parties involved, rival candidates had to pool  
resources to charter aircraft to fly them to far-flung communities. Many 
used snowmobiles to get around. 
	In many cases, candidates and voters are personal friends or members  
of the same extended families, making the election very different from 
those held in provinces to the south. 
	Nunavut, to be carved from the Northwest Territories, will be twice  
as large as Ontario. It's birth on April 1 will mark the first time the 
Canadian map has changed since 1949, when Newfoundland became a Canadian 
province. 
	Its borders will encompass Baffin Island in the east and roughly two  
thirds of Victoria Island in the west, taking in Ellesmere Island in the 
north, and running roughly along the north of Hudson Bay. 
	Till now its people have been represented in the 24-member  
Legislature in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories. 
	The Inuits, who have their own lifestyle and culture, felt their  
problems were not fully appreciated in Yellowknife and asked for a 
territory of their own. 
	The new Legislature will sit in Iqaluit, a town of about 3,600  
people, set to become the capital of Nunavut. The legislators will 
discuss territorial issues in Inuktitut, or Inuttituut, the Inuit common 
language. 
	With no political parties involved, decisions in the Legislature will  
be taken by consensus. 
	Between today's election and the birth of the new territory, the  
Legislature is expected to choose a premier and a five-member cabinet. 
-=-=-	 
		   C O P Y R I G H T * R E M I N D E R 	

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