Welcome to Iqaluit

Welcome to Iqaluit - Canada's newest capital city.  Until 1987 Iqaluit was known as Frobisher Bay, what is still the name of the bay Iqaluit is located on.  Iqaluit has a population of nearly 7,000 and it was chosen as Nunavut's proposed capital city in 1995, and then Nunavut separated from the Northwest Territories to become its own territory on April 1, 1999.  People who live in Iqaluit are called Iqalummiut (singular: Iqalummiuq).

Iqaluit was founded in 1942 as an American air base, intended to provide a stop-over and refueling site for short range aircraft being ferried across the Atlantic to support the war effort in Europe.  The Hudson's Bay Company moved its south Baffin operations to the neighbouring valley of Niaqunngut, officially called Apex, in 1949 to take advantage of the airfield.  The community of Apex is only about 5 kms from Iqaluit's city centre and the old Hudson Bay Company buildings can still be found along the beach.

Iqaluit's architecture is functional - designed to minimize material costs, while retaining heat and withstanding the climate.  And of course there aren't any basements here - because of the permafrost all buildings have to be built on stilts or piles.

This is actually the view from the Bed and Breakfast where I'm staying 

Iqaluit is also the only Canadian capital city not to have traffic lights at all.  Instead, stop signs are used to control intersections.

It doesn't take long to walk through the city and I found myself in the arctic tundra.  Although there aren't any trees it's far from barren - there are wildflowers growing all over the tundra.  It is blanketed in a carpet of flowers, most of which are only growing a few centimetres high.

 Yellow Arctic Poppies

 Arctic cotton which Inuit traditionally used for a variety of purposes including as wicks for soapstone lamps

And how could I not love this - Purple Saxifrage - Nunavut's territorial flower

And for those who were wondering, absolutely yes that is snow and ice you see in these photos - particularly still on Frobisher Bay.  I had hoped to maybe be able to do a boat tour out into Frobisher Bay while I was here but unfortunately there's still too much ice in the bay for most of the boats to be able to get out safely.  The first ice breaker of the season just came into the Bay this past week and except for a few brave fishing boats trying to get a very early start on what is a very short season, most of what's floating in the Bay is still ice.