Louis McComber lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, from 1993 to 2005 and quickly became captivated by the process of the creation of Nunavut, the third Canadian Arctic territory. He was a journalist for the French-language weekly l'Aquilon and the CBC North Boréal Hebdo radio show, and wrote a bi-monthly column of political and cultural commentary in Nunatsiaq News . Born and educated in Québec, McComber saw similarities between the unresolved Quebec political struggle within the Canadian Federation and Nunavut's situation, where 85 percent of the people are of Inuit ancestry and mostly still speak Inuktitut at home. In 1994, as a part-time instructor at Nunavut Arctic College, McComber met the late Abraham Okpik, a pioneer of Inuit political organizations. Okpik had started writing his life story, and it became the first of a series of ten Inuit leaders' life stories that McComber helped produce in partnership with Nunavut Arctic College and Laval University. These Inuit leaders were instrumental in turning their people's political dreams into reality. Their stories provide a rich source of Inuit political literature, accessible to Inuit students, scholars, and the general public. Let's Move On , The Life Story of Paul Okalik , the first Premier of Nunavut, is a central piece of this Nunavut political mosaic.
Louis McComber holds an MA in anthropology and has recently been a lecturer in the First Peoples' program at the University du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Paul Okalik was born in Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, Nunavut. His first years in the English school system there were frustrating. As a teenager he had several brushes with the justice system. After apprenticing as a mechanic at the Nanisivik mine, he was hired as a land claims negotiator in 1985 by the Baffin Region Inuit Association, now Qikiqtani Inuit Association. He stayed with the negotiating team until the Agreement in Principle was signed in 1990. This experience prompted him to pursue his education. Okalik earned a BA in Political Science and Canadian studies from Carleton University, and an LLB from the University of Ottawa.
On February 12, 1999, he was called to the Northwest Territories Bar, just weeks before the creation of Nunavut. Paul Okalik served as Premier of the Government of Nunavut from 1999 to 2008. Since then, he has held cabinet positions in charge of several ministries including Justice, Culture and Heritage, Qulliq Energy Corporation, Immigration, Labour, Languages, and the Liquor Licensing Board. Currently, he is the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut for the riding of Iqaluit-Sinaa. In 2016, Paul Okalik resigned from cabinet to signal his opposition to the opening of a liquor store in Iqaluit, without the creation of proper treatment facilities for alcoholics in Nunavut.