Lena Pedersen

Lena (Elizabeth Magdalena) Pedersen[1] or Lena Pederson (born 1940, Greenland) is a politician and social worker from Nunavut, Canada. In 1959, she moved from Greenland to the Northwest Territories and lived in Coppermine (Kugluktuk), Pangnirtung and Rae (Behchoko) before moving to Cape Dorset where she participated in the artwork sales of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.[1]

Life and career

Pedersen was the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the Northwest Territories 1970 election. The elections ordinance was amended to allow women the vote and run for office prior to the 1951 Northwest Territories election. Pedersen was not the first woman to run, however, as Vivian Roberts was a candidate in the 1951 election.

In 1999 she was appointed by premier Paul Okalik to the Maligarnit Qimirrujiit, Nunavut's Law Review Commission. Prior to her appointment she served as a board member for the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, and as a drug and alcohol program coordinator for Kugluktuk.

In the 2003 Northwest Territories general election she ran in Yellowknife Centre finishing last with 10 votes in a field of seven candidates.

The former Lena Pederson (Kitikmeot) Boarding Home in Yellowknife, that was used by patients from Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region while on medical travel, was named in her honour.[2]

She was, at one time, married to Red Pedersen and their grandson, Calvin Pedersen was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in July 2020.[3][4]

Quote

Regarding the geographic move of the Northwest Territories government and the effect on Eskimo Co-operatives, Pedersen is quoted as saying:

"The NWT Government moved North in 1967 to get closer to the people," but "it has achieved only to get closer in miles to some communities. It is still as far as or further removed from the people as it every [sic] was."— Lena Pedersen, 1974[5]

Partial bibliography
  • Pedersen, Lena, and Donna Stephania. Crime Prevention in Kugluktuk. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, 1999. ISBN 1-894159-61-6

References
  1. "Lena (Elizabeth Magdalena) Pedersen First woman elected to the Northwest Territories Council". Library and Archives Canada. April 12, 2005. Archived from the original on October 26, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  2. Lena Pederson Boarding Home Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Okpik, Abraham (2005-09-29). "The Beginning of Aboriginal Political Organizations". We Call It Survival (PDF). Life Stories of Northern Leaders Series Volume One. Nunavut Arctic College. pp. 317, 326. ISBN 1-896-204-71-6. Retrieved 2020-07-27. ...and Leena Pedersen,5 who was an Inuk member of the Legislative Assembly from Coppermine....5. Originally from Greenland, she married Red Pedersen from Cam-bridge Bay.
  4. Derek Neary, "New MLAs acclaimed in Baker Lake, Kugluktuk; race set for Pangnirtung mayor". Nunavut News, July 24, 2020.
  5. Marybelle Mitchell (1996). Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite The Birth of Class and Nationalism Among Canadian Inuit (.pdf). McGill-Queen's Press -MQUP. pp. 241–242. ISBN 9780773513747. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
Preceded by
Robert Williamson		 MLA Central Arctic
1970–1975		 Succeeded by
William Lyall
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