Simonie Michael

Simonie Michael (; alternative surnames Michel March 2, 1933 – November 15, 2008) was a Canadian politician from the eastern Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) who was the first Inuk elected to a legislature in Canada. Before becoming involved in politics, Michael worked as a carpenter and business owner, and was one of very few translators between Inuktitut and English. He became a prominent member of the Inuit co-operative housing movement and a community activist in Iqaluit, and was appointed to a series of governing bodies, including the precursor to the Iqaluit City Council.

After becoming the first elected Inuk member of the Northwest Territories Legislative Council, in 1966, Michael worked on infrastructural and public health initiatives. He is credited with bringing public attention to the dehumanizing effects of the disc number system that was used in place of surnames for Inuit, and with prompting the government to authorise Project Surname to replace the numbers with names.

Early life Michael was born between Kimmirut (then Lake Harbour) and Iqaluit (then Frobisher Bay), and was described as being from Apex, Iqaluit. His step-father, Tigullagaq, worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. but it left Michael with several negative impressions. He would later say that the American military did not provide compensation for much of the labour that Inuit workers performed, including three months of work transporting wood.

Despite the policy of racial separation enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Iqaluit during the 1940s and into the 1950s, Michael was one of the residents who worked in various jobs for the American military, and he was able to learn English through that work. though some sources mention other translators around the same time.

Over the following years employees of the Canadian government working in and near Iqaluit sought out Michael because of his knowledge of English, so he had numerous early interactions with the Canadian government. and ran a taxi and bus service. In 1956, Michael and his wife became the first residents of Iqaluit to have an insulated house constructed. Several of his sculptures have been sold at auction, and some of his sculptures have been housed in the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.

Before Michael's candidacy for territory-wide office, Ronald Duffy writes that he already "had been named to just about every Iqaluit council and board in which Inuit [had] a voice".

Campaign and election Michael was elected to the Northwest Territories Legislative Council in 1966, when it met in Resolute, Nunavut.

Michael was encouraged to run in the 1966 by-election to the Northwest Territories Legislative Council by Stu Hodgson, later the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. The creation of several new districts, increasing the legislative body up to 13 members, Michael contested the election in the Eastern Arctic district against two non-Inuit candidatesWelland Phipps ("Weldy"), the president of Atlas Aviation, and Gordon Rennie, Iqaluit mayor and manager of the Hudson's Bay Company store but others had been elected before, such as Frank Calder. Though Michael was Canada's first elected Inuk legislator, he was its second Inuk legislator overall, since Abe Okpik had been appointed to the Northwest Territories Legislative Council in 1965.

Legislative career First speech Michael's inaugural speech to the Legislative Assembly lasted 90 minutes and was given in Inuktitut. Although this issue had been raised previously by Abe Okpik in the Legislative Assembly and was becoming increasingly salient, Michael is widely credited with attracting the attention of the press and prompting the government to pass a motion authorizing Project Surname, in which Okpik spent the years between 1968 and 1971 travelling throughout the Northwest Territories and recording each Inuk's preferred surname to replace their disc numbers.

Health and infrastructure Michael was involved in several motions pertaining to infrastructure and health in the legislature. In response to a rise in alcoholism, he prompted a referendum that restricted the availability of liquor in Iqaluit in the late 1960s. He pushed for the creation of infrastructure that would make health care more available in Iqaluit, since the prevailing practice was to take those in need of major medical care away from Iqaluit to medical centres elsewhere, which caused sick people to undergo travel and to remain separate from their family and community during their treatment. After leaving government, several of Michael's small sculptures of animals were sold at auction, This expansion of voting rights remained controversial; for example, in 1962, then-Senator Thomas Crerar called it an "error" and advocated revoking the right for Inuit in the eastern Arctic to vote.

Given this context, Eva Aariak, the Premier of Nunavut, described Michael's election as "an important step forward in the evolution of our territory and its democratic institutions." Two roads were named after him in Apex: Simonie Michael Crescent, and Simonie Michael Lane. In 2020, a boat that was owned by Michael was at Apex beach, and there were proposals to preserve it.