Iqaluit, Nunavut

Iqaluit is the territorial capital and the largest community of Canada's youngest territory, Nunavut. Its population is approximately 5000 people (2000), with a majority of them Inuit. The town was selected to serve as the new territory's capital in a territory-wide referendum, in which it beat Rankin Inlet.

(public domain map source)

The town is located on Frobisher Bay on the southwest part of Baffin Island, in the Arctic Ocean to the east of the territory's mainland, and to the north of Hudson Bay. Inhabitants of Iqaluit are called Iqlalummuit (singular, Iqlalummuk).

Begun as an American airbase in World War II, the population of the town of Frobisher Bay increased rapidly during the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW line, a system of radar stations, see NORAD) in the 1950s. On January 1, 1987, the name of this municipality was officially changed from "Frobisher Bay" to "Iqaluit", which means "place of many fish" in Inuktitut.

See also:

• Canada
• List of cities in Canada
• List of communities in Nunavut
• Canadian provinces and territories

External Link

• The Official City of Iqaluit Website
• Two-weeks in non-anglophonic Canada