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Canada Has New Territory, To Be Run By Native Inuit
On February 15, 1999, Canada announced creation of a new territory which will be governed by the Inuit people who are native to the region.
By GSReport
Start Date: 2/25/99
It will be the first regional government in modern North America to be run almost entirely by indigenous people. By a vote of the local residents on February 15, Canada has a new territory, bigger than the state of Alaska, carved out of its Northwest Territory. Called Nunavut, on April 1 the new territory will have its own elected government.
Only about 25,000 people now live in Nunavut, and about 80 percent of them are native Inuit. The election will fill 19 seats in Nunavut's first legislature, which in turn will then select the first premier.
The new government will immediately face some difficult challenges. About one-third of Nunavut's citizens are currently on welfare, and unemployment is running at 22 percent. But voter interest was high, and many of the candidates conducted their campaigns literally door to door in minus 20-degree weather.
"People are finally starting to realize that with this election comes the start of a long-awaited dream," said Goo Arlooktoo, running in a district on Baffin Island.
"This will showcase to the world that we as Inuit can run a public government focusing on our own issues without forgetting others as well," said Jack Anawak, a contender for Nunavut's first premier.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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