{"id":292189,"date":"2025-11-19T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292189\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T01:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:20:08","slug":"john-main-selected-as-nunavuts-first-non-inuk-premier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292189\/","title":{"rendered":"John Main selected as Nunavut\u2019s first non-Inuk premier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nunavut went to the polls on Oct. 27. The floor of the territory’s Legislature is shown in Iqaluit.Geordon Omand\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

John Main was selected as Nunavut\u2019s next premier on Tuesday, marking the first time Nunavut will have a non-Inuk leader.<\/p>\n

Main, a third-term MLA who speaks fluent Inuktitut and served as Nunavut\u2019s health minister in the previous assembly, beat out David Akeeagok for the position in a secret ballot vote in Nunavut\u2019s Legislature.<\/p>\n

The premier-elect is expected to be sworn in on Thursday, at which point he will become Nunavut\u2019s seventh premier.<\/p>\n

Hydro-fibre line to Canada\u2019s North is key to Arctic sovereignty, proponents say<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI will work to the best of my ability and work hard,\u201d Main said, translated from Inuktitut, in a brief victory speech in the House.<\/p>\n

Main, who is from Arviat \u2013 one of Nunavut\u2019s larger communities with about 3,000 people along the shores west of Hudson\u2019s Bay \u2013 is only the second premier to hail from the Kivalliq region of central Nunavut. Joe Savikataaq, also from Arviat, led the territory from 2018 to 2021.<\/p>\n

Nunavut functions in a consensus-style government, in which there are no political parties. After electing their premier, MLAs will then choose up to eight cabinet ministers among themselves, with the remaining MLAs effectively serving as an opposition group to the government.<\/p>\n

In his first term as a regular-sitting MLA, Main was one of the more vocal members of the Assembly to press the government, also serving as the chair of the regular members caucus.<\/p>\n

Following his re-election in 2021, Main was selected to cabinet and given the health portfolio. He held the file throughout his whole four-year term, in a cabinet which saw frequent portfolio shuffles amid a flurry of cabinet resignations under outgoing Premier P.J. Akeeagok\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

During a question-and-answer portion of Tuesday\u2019s leadership forum, Main was asked simply why MLAs should vote for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent four years on this side of the house, four years on that side of the house, and the next four years has to be all about collaboration in this house between members, but also with organizations outside of this House,\u201d Main said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing I\u2019m the most proud of as a minister has been building partnerships, and I think that\u2019s probably the biggest thing I bring to the table with this job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former cabinet minister David Joanasie was elected Speaker earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Nunavummiut went to the polls on Oct. 27 in an election that saw the lowest voter turnout in the territory\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Nunavut went to the polls on Oct. 27. The floor of the territory’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-292189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}