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argued that the proposal would restore a tradition of respect and equality that
had been lost, whereas those against the proposal hearkened to traditional
Inuit gender relationships as a firm foundation assuring mutual respect, which
made the proposal itself superfluous. James Arreak, in a letter to the editor
of Nunatsiaq News , 16 argued that 'women do not need to earn respect because
they already have our respect' (1997). Acknowledging men and women dif-
ferently was also seen to undermine an Inuit 'spirit', which is, in the words
of Arreak (1997), 'communally based and individualism is second to it'. As
Paul Quassa (1997) argued, '[our ancestors] did things collectively in order to
survive … I believe that this [idea of gender parity] will only make the Inuit
think and act as if there are two distinctive groups rather than viewing us all
as one.' Also, a relatively conservative interpretation of Christianity, which
has in some ways been incorporated into Inuit 'tradition' across the North,
was invoked by a vocal minority who, particularly over community radio,
used religion as grounds for opposition to the gender parity proposal (Dahl
1997; Gombay 2000; Hicks and White 2000) . 17
The conceptualization of women as the carriers of tradition, responsible
for the care of the national family, is central to Inuit nationalist discourse
and echoes throughout understandings of Inuit womanhood. As carriers of
knowledge about the communities and the home, supporters of gender par-
ity argued that the presence of more women in formal politics would help
the government deal with social problems, like those relating to health and
education. One Igloolik woman said that social issues would have a higher
priority if the Nunavut legislature had gender parity. She commented that 'if
we don't make a change, I don't see these types of problems going away …
Nobody talks about them in the present government' (Bourgeois 1997a). The
importance of the family and women's role within it was also used as a reason
to reject the proposal, based upon the notion that the absence of women in
the home while participating in territorial politics could lead to a deepening
of the social problems afflicting many communities in Nunavut. One elder
in Pond Inlet voiced his concern about women being elected as members of
the legislative assembly, as children would be left at home. 'I see kids who are
left alone at home … I think they're the ones committing suicide when they
get older. What's going to happen to those kids when their mothers are at the
capital?' (Bourgeois 1997b).
Arguments based on competing perspectives of formal
political structures
Those against the gender parity proposal argued from a position of belief
in the ability of existing forms of representation and rights to ensure the
fair treatment and equal participation of all citizens, an idea that feminist
scholars argue has led to the suppression of difference from public dis-
course in the name of objectivity - a practice that reinforces the privileges
 
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