{{Short description|Canadian Inuk politician}} {{Use Canadian English|date=October 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = | name = Lena Pedersen | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1940}} | birth_place = Greenland | death_date = | death_place = | office = MLA for Central Arctic | term_start = 1975 | term_end = 1979 | predecessor = Robert Williamson | successor = Bill Lyall | party = non-partisan<br />consensus government | occupation = Social worker | spouse = Red Pedersen | children = 5, including Fred Pedersen | relations = Calvin Pedersen (grandson) }} '''Elizabeth Magdalena "Lena" Pedersen'''<ref name=collections/> or '''Pederson''' (born 1940) is a Inuk 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 (Behchokǫ̀) before moving to Cape Dorset (Kinngait) where she participated in the artwork sales of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative.<ref name=collections>{{cite web |url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-1331-e.html |title=Lena (Elizabeth Magdalena) Pedersen First woman elected to the Northwest Territories Council |publisher=Library and Archives Canada |date=April 12, 2005 |access-date=October 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026172701/https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-1331-e.html |archive-date=October 26, 2016}}</ref>
==Life and career== Pedersen was born in Greenland in 1940. In the 1970 general election, Pedersen was the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories representing the Central Arctic District The elections ordinance was amended to allow women the vote and run for office prior to the 1951 Northwest Territories general 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 (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, and as a drug and alcohol program coordinator for Kugluktuk.
In 2003 Northwest Territories general election she ran in Yellowknife Centre but was defeated.
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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hlthss.gov.nt.ca/Features/Programs_and_Services/help_directory_database/entry.asp?ID=552 |title=Lena Pederson Boarding Home |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061123123822/http://www.hlthss.gov.nt.ca/Features/Programs_and_Services/help_directory_database/entry.asp?ID=552 |archive-date=November 23, 2006}}</ref>
She was, at one time, married to Red Pedersen and their grandson, Calvin Pedersen was acclaimed as MLA to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in July 2020, representing the Kugluktuk electoral district.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Okpik |first1=Abraham |author-link1=Abe Okpik |date=September 29, 2005 |chapter=The Beginning of Aboriginal Political Organizations |title=We Call It Survival |url= http://www.traditional-knowledge.ca/english/pdf/We-Call-It-Survival-E.pdf |volume= Life Stories of Northern Leaders Series Volume One |publisher= Nunavut Arctic College|pages= 317, 326|isbn= 1-896-204-71-6|access-date=July 27, 2020 |quote=...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.}}</ref><ref>Derek Neary, [https://nunavutnews.com/nunavut-news/new-mlas-acclaimed-in-baker-lake-kugluktuk-race-set-for-pangnirtung-mayor/ "New MLAs acclaimed in Baker Lake, Kugluktuk; race set for Pangnirtung mayor"]. ''Nunavut News'', July 24, 2020.</ref> In the 2025 Nunavut general election their son, Fred Pedersen, was also elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut but for the Cambridge Bay electoral district.<ref name=kiaFP>{{cite web |url=https://kitia.ca/news/the-kia-honors-the-late-asger-red-pedersen/ |title=The KIA Honors the Late Asger "Red" Pedersen |publisher=Kitkmeot Inuit Association |website=www.kitia.ca |date=June 9, 2025 |access-date=October 31, 2025}}</ref><ref name=nunnewFP>{{cite web |url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/safety-youth-are-priorities-for-cambridge-bay-candidates/ |title=Safety, youth are priorities for Cambridge Bay candidates |publisher=Nunatsiaq News |website=www.nunatsiaq.com |date=October 7, 2025 |access-date=October 31, 2025}}</ref>
==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."<small>— Lena Pedersen, 1974</small><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxdo-gvbByIC&q=%22lena+pedersen%22+yellowknife&pg=PA240 |title=Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite The Birth of Class and Nationalism Among Canadian Inuit |author=Marybelle Mitchell |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press -MQUP |year=1996 |format=.pdf |access-date=November 12, 2007 |pages=241–242|isbn=9780773513747 }}</ref>
==Partial bibliography== {{refbegin}} * Pedersen, Lena, and Donna Stephania. ''[http://ww4.ps-sp.gc.ca/en/library/publications/caledon/kugluk~1.pdf Crime Prevention in Kugluktuk]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}''. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, 1999. {{ISBN|1-894159-61-6}} {{refend}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060325210154/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/40924/news/nunavut/40924_09.html A lot of warmth in the Lena Pederson Boarding Home Nunatsiaq News September 24, 2004] *[http://www.gov.nu.ca/news/1999/nov/nov29.pdf Premier Paul Okalik appoints Maligarnit Qimirrujiit commissioners] *[http://www.cbc.ca/nwtvotes2003/riding/018/ Yellowknife Centre election results 2003 CBC] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070929093410/http://stillcounting.athabascau.ca/table2-1.php Still counting Woman electoral firsts list in Canada]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|ca-nt}} {{succession box| before=Robert Williamson| title=MLA Central Arctic| years=1970–1975| after=William Lyall}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Lena}} Category:Living people Category:1940 births Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Category:20th-century Canadian women politicians Category:20th-century Greenlandic people Category:20th-century Inuit politicians Category:20th-century Inuit women Category:People from Behchoko Category:People from Kinngait Category:People from Kugluktuk Category:People from Pangnirtung Category:Politicians from Yellowknife Category:Greenlandic emigrants to Canada Category:Canadian Inuit women Category:Greenlandic Inuit women Category:Women in Northwest Territories politics Category:Inuit from the Northwest Territories Category:Inuit from Nunavut Category:First women legislators