Candidates:

Lucas Amagoalik
Pauloosie Attagootak
Larry Audlaluk
Levi Barnabas
Anthony Ullikatar
Rebekah Uqi Williams

Current MLA:

Rebekah Williams

Constituency Profile: Canada's northernmost electoral riding, Quttiktuq, stretches from Baffin Island's Brodeur and Borden peninsulas to the north tip of Ellesmere Island, just 700 kilometres shy of the pole. Nunavut's highest mountains and largest icecaps are here, as are thermal oases like Lake Hazen, in Quttinirpaaq National Park. The major community is Arctic Bay (pop. 646). A 21-kilometre road - Nunavut's only highway -- links the hamlet to the Nanisivik silver-zinc mine, which closed recently after a quarter-century of operation. Most employees were southerners, though at least 30 locals lost their jobs. The 2002 shutdown of the Polaris lead-zinc mine on Little Cornwallis Island had a similar impact on tiny Resolute (pop. 215), though the community remains a transportation hub for wealthy tourists and High Arctic adventurers. Quiet Grise Fiord (pop.163) is Canada's northernmost community, but is culturally linked to northern Quebec, from which many of its residents were forcibly relocated in the 1950s. None of the Quttiktuq's communities are "decentralized," and territorial jobs are thus scarce.

Political History: Nunavut's second female MLA, social worker Rebekah Williams, joined the assembly following a December 2000 by-election held to fill the seat of Speaker Levi Barnabas. Barnabas, who ran third in the by-election, had resigned several months earlier after pleading guilty to sexual assault. In 1999 and 1995, Barnabas had won comfortably. Elections in Quttiktuq have almost always been hotly contested: six candidates vied in the 1999 election, and eight competed in the 2000 by-election. Voter turnout here is consistently the lowest in Nunavut, due largely to the minimal turnout at the Nanisivik and Polaris mines.

2000 By-Election
Rebekah Williams	88 (20.85%)
David Roberts	80 (18.95%)
Levi Barnabas	73 (17.29%)
Voter turnout	70.68%

1999
Levi Barnabas	155 (35.31%)
Larry Audlaluk	100 (22.78%)
Elizabeth Roberts	71 (16.17%)
Voter turnout	67.99% (lowest in Nunavut)

1995
Levi Barnabas	135 (34.44%)
Elizabeth Roberts	90 (22.96%)
Aziz Kheraj	89 (22.70%)
Voter turnout	64.29% (lowest in Nunavut)

1991
Ludy Pudluk	146 (38.52%)
Larry Audlaluk	94 (24.80%)
David Kalluk	65 (17.15%)
Voter turnout	58.55% (lowest in Nunavut)