Nunavut NDP announces Lori Idlout as federal election candidate

The New Democratic Party has selected its candidate for Nunavut in the upcoming election.

Lori Idlout will fill the vacancyMumilaaq Qaqqaq left open when she announced earlier this year she would not seek re-election as Nunavut's MP.

Idlout grew up in Nunavut and currently lives in Iqaluit. She was called to the bar in 2019 after completing law school at the University of Ottawa. Recently, she acted on behalf of the group of people protesting developments at the Baffinland Iron Mine on north Baffin Island.

Idlout was one of two candidates who stepped forward for the NDP's candidacy.

So far, the NDP is the only federal party to announce a Nunavut candidate.

Party fortunes fluctuate

In 2019, the NDP's Qaqqaqwon Nunavut's single federal seat in the House of Commons with 3,861 votes. Liberal candidate Megan Pizzo-Lyall followed with 2,918 votes and the Conservative candidate, and former cabinet minister, Leona Aglukkaq came in third with 2,469 votes. Douglas Roy won 206 votes for the Green Party.

Nunavut does not have a history of loyalty to any particular party.

Qaqqaq's election was the first time the eastern Arctic was represented in Ottawa by the NDP since 1982, when Peter Ittinuar crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus.

In 2015, Hunter Tootoo was the seat as a Liberal candidate. Before that, Aglukkaq took the seat for the Conservatives in 2008 and 2011, and was named health minister and later minister of environment by Stephen Harper.

Prior to that, Nancy Karetak-Lindell held the seat for the Liberals for over a decade.