Madeleine Redfern (born 1967) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

politician, who was elected mayor of

Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

on 13 December 2010. She was the city's mayor until 2019. She was born in Iqaluit (then called Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories). Redfern graduated from the

Akitsiraq Law School Akitsiraq Law School is a legal education program designed to increase the number of lawyers in Nunavut and the Canadian Arctic, including a program leading to a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B.) in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The Law School has no perma ...

before becoming the first Inuk to be offered a clerkship at the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. She was selected by outgoing Justice

Louise Arbour Louise Arbour, (born February 10, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. Arbour was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Pr ...

to clerk under her replacement, Justice

Louise Charron Louise Charron, (born March 2, 1951) is a Canadian jurist. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in October, 2004, and is the first native-born Franco-Ontarian Supreme Court judge. (This distinction has sometimes been attributed to Lo ...

. Redfern is a businessperson, consultant and social advocate in Iqaluit, and was most recently the executive director of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, looking into the legacy of historical effects of federal government policies on Eastern Arctic Inuit during the period from the 1950s through the 1980s. She ran as a candidate for the

Legislative Assembly of Nunavut The Legislative Assembly of Nunavut is the legislative assembly for the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The seat of the Assembly is the Legislative Building of Nunavut in Iqaluit. Prior to the creation of Nunavut as a Canadian territory on ...

in the 2008 territorial election in Iqaluit Centre, but lost to incumbent MLA

Hunter Tootoo Hunter A. Tootoo (Inuktitut: Hᐊᓐᑕ ᑐᑐ; born August 18, 1963) is a Canadian politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Nunavut from 2015 to 2019. Elected as a Liberal to the House of Commons, he was appointed Minister of ...

. She is an outspoken critic of Nunavut's government. "We live in a chilly banana republic," she said of the territorial government, a short time before becoming mayor. On 24 July 2012, Redfern announced at a meeting of the

Iqaluit City Council Iqaluit City Council () is the governing body of the city of Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. As of 2022, the council consists of mayor Solomon Awa, deputy mayor Kyle Sheppard, and councillors Romeyn Stevenson (alternative deputy mayor), Simon Nattaq, O ...

that she would not run for re-election in the next election. She was succeeded in that fall's municipal election by John Graham, but Graham resigned two years into his term and was succeeded by Mary Wilman. In the 2015 election, Redfern ran for mayor again, defeating Wilman."Meet Iqaluit's new mayor and council"

CBC North CBC North (; ; ) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television service for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon of Northern Canada as well as Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik in the Nord-du-Québec region of Quebec. Hist ...

, 20 October 2015.

Electoral record

References

1967 births 21st-century Inuit people 21st-century Inuit women Mayors of Iqaluit Inuit politicians Women mayors of places in Nunavut Canadian Inuit women Living people Indspire Awards 21st-century mayors of places in Nunavut 21st-century Canadian women politicians Inuit from the Northwest Territories Inuit from Nunavut {{Nunavut-mayor-stub