The federal NDP caucus met in Rankin Inlet last week for its winter retreat. The party’s MPs were treated to Nunavummiut hospitality, endured blizzards and heard about the challenges of living in the North, interim party Leader Don Davies said in an interview Monday.
“I’ve spoken to a few people who said that when you go North, you start falling in love with it,” he said.
It was the Vancouver-area politician’s first time in Nunavut. Davies has been interim NDP leader since the party’s former head Jagmeet Singh lost his House of Commons seat in last April’s election.
New Democrats are expected to choose a new leader at a convention in late March.
Generally, the NDP holds a caucus retreat a week before a parliamentary sitting. For this year’s winter retreat, its MPs chose Rankin Inlet. Parliament resumed Monday, following a six-week break that began before Christmas.
One purpose of the retreat is to get to know the people and places that make up their constituencies, Davies said.
Members spent the week meeting with community leaders and members.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout couldn’t attend the first day because a winter storm prevented her plane from landing, she said Monday.
Her fellow MPs sat for several presentations she said were “received very well” and that helped inform them about “some of the realities that Nunavummiut experience,” Idlout said.
Davies said the issues faced by the rest of Canada seem to be “experienced more acutely in the North.”
“Learning about the history, the traditions, the pride of the Inuit, and everybody else who has made the North their home was really striking. It was eye-opening,” Davies said.
“We have housing problems in the rest of Canada, but nowhere else, I don’t think, is it as serious as we experienced in Rankin.”
Nunavummiut homes are often overcrowded. Residents told MPs they had been on housing waitlists for more than 10 years, Davies said.
