Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As our Premier has just so eloquently outlined, International Women’s Day is coming up this Sunday and you will see that many Members in the Chamber today are wearing purple in recognition of International Women’s Day. Today I would like to talk a little bit about elected leadership at the territorial level.
As the Premier said, we have strong women in leadership at all levels in all of our communities. Mr. Speaker, 1975 was the first fully elected Legislative Assembly. It was the 8th Legislative Assembly and since that time, in that past 40 years, I would like to recognize some of the women who served in this Chamber, starting with Lena Pedersen, who represented the Central Arctic for four years, elected in 1970; Lynda Sorensen, elected in 1979, representing Yellowknife South for five years; Eliza Lawrence, representing Tu Nedhe from 1983 for four years; Nellie Cournoyea, representing the Western Arctic and then renamed Nunakput for 16 years, starting in 1979; Jeannie Marie Jewell, representing Slave River and then later renamed Thebacha, from 1987 and spent eight years in this Legislative Assembly; Rebecca Mike, from Baffin Central, starting in 1991 representing for four years; Sandy Lee for Range Lake, elected in 1999 and served in this Legislature for 12 years; Manitok Thompson, elected in 1995 from Aivilik riding, and she served here for four years prior to division and I believe may have served in the Nunavut government after that; and, of course, in 1995 I was elected and honoured to be elected to this Chamber, and we won’t talk about how long I’ve been here.
---Laughter
There have only been 10 women ever elected in 40 years of elected government, and number 10 is my colleague Ms. Bisaro, who was elected in 2007 and has served two terms in this Legislative Assembly.
I also had the honour, along with Ms. Bisaro and the Premier, to attend the Campaign School that was put on by the Status of Women Council and had a few words to say there. With an election coming up, Mr. Speaker, if I can seek unanimous consent, I’ll have a few comments on what women might think about the upcoming territorial election. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
I’m pleased to see that there is interest from women. May I say that even if you’ve run before, don’t be shy to try again. You can look through history and see that many, many people did not get elected the first time they ever ran and they should think about doing it again. If you do want to serve in this House, it is good to have the support of families and a close network of support. It is challenging being away, and that is for men or women, but you would think about the support of your family and a close network of people supporting you. It doesn’t hurt to be a little opinionated and it certainly helps if you’ve got a lot of energy.
So with that, to any women considering running for this territorial election this fall, I wish them all the best. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
