Sallie Ross to run for MLA in Inuvik Twin Lakes
Sallie Ross says she intends to run in the Inuvik Twin Lakes district this fall, an open district in which one other candidate – Lesa Semmler – has announced she will run.
Cabinet member Robert C McLeod is currently the MLA in the district. He announced in March he would step aside after a decade and a half in territorial politics, telling members of the legislature: “Inuvik deserves new energy.”
The incumbents in both of Inuvik’s ridings have decided not to run again, the first time this has happened since 1991. Cabinet member and housing minister Alfred Moses confirmed earlier this month he will step down ahead of October’s election.
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In an announcement posted to Facebook on Saturday, Ross cited her long history of “advocacy and public service” in her professional and personal life.
Ross is a registered nurse who practised at the Inuvik Regional Hospital for 12 years according to her LinkedIn profile. She is currently a regional manager of the territory’s income security program.
Ross said she has focused her volunteerism in the community on “youth and family-centred service groups,” citing her role as a founding member of the Inuvik Community Events Society and more than 10 years as a soccer and volleyball coach.
In her announcement, Ross said she is proud to acknowledge her paternal Indigenous heritage as a member of the Gwich’in Nation as well as her maternal Polish and eastern European heritage. She mentioned her parents, Jim and Grazyna Harrison, as well as grandparents John and Pearl Carmicheal of Aklavik, and Henry Konieczny and Barbara Pichuha.
“I believe in living and demonstrating the values and principles I was taught as a child: honesty, respect, integrity, hard work and determination combined with compassion, humility, and caring for others,” she stated.
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“I will work to ensure that programs and services are in place that benefit the families and individual residents of the Twin Lakes Riding and, ultimately, Inuvik as a whole.”
Cabin Radio will feature extensive interviews with NWT election candidates beginning at the start of September, when nominations officially open. Bookmark our NWT Election 2019 homepage to follow our coverage.