Re-elected MLA Lesa Semmler weighing a run for N.W.T. premiership
CBC News | Posted: November 15, 2023 8:22 PM | Last Updated: November 15, 2023
Another re-elected MLA, R.J. Simpson, has already said he wants the top job
Lesa Semmler didn't have to wait long after polls closed on Tuesday to learn she'd been re-elected to the N.W.T.'s legislative assembly.
She also didn't have to wait long before people were then asking the big question: would she run for premier?
"Since the election numbers came in, you know, and this morning, I've had people reaching out to me," she told CBC News on Wednesday morning.
"And I've had people reaching out to me over the last little while and, you know, think telling me to think about it."
Semmler was among the first projected winners on election night, defeating her challenger Lenora McLeod to secure a second term as MLA for the northern riding of Inuvik Twin Lakes. According to unofficial results, she won handily — with 322 votes to McLeod's 128.
It wasn't much different from the 2019 election, when Semmler trounced two other candidates to win her first term in the legislature.
As for the premiership — to be decided by MLAs in a vote on Dec. 7 — she hasn't ruled it out.
"Coming into this next four years, it's going to be huge responsibility. You're gonna have to have a strong cabinet, you're going to have to have a strong premier that's going to represent the voices of the North," she said.
"I haven't decided anything. I've told anyone who asked me that I would think about it, but there's no decision."
Simpson running, Thompson considering
Any MLA can make a bid to be premier, but typically they'd have served at least one term as MLA before going for the top job. Convention also suggests the next premier should come from outside of Yellowknife, following two successive Yellowknife premiers.
That narrows the potential field this time around, as only seven MLAs from the last legislative assembly are heading into the next one: Semmler, Jane Weyallon Armstrong, Caitlin Cleveland, Richard Edjericon, R.J. Simpson, Shane Thompson and Caroline Wawzonek. Of those, Simpson, Thompson and Wawzonek have served in cabinet.
The territory's last premier, Caroline Cochrane, did not run in this election.
Of the returning MLAs, one has already said he wants to be premier: Simpson.
"Yes, I'll be running for premier. I want to get some things done and that's the way to get things done," he told CBC News after winning re-election on Tuesday night.
Thompson said he's been asked to run, but he's still mulling it over.
Weyallon Armstrong declined to comment on her intentions. Cleveland said she won't run for premier. Edjericon said he was undecided.
Three winners in Tuesday's election have served in previous assemblies, including Kieron Testart, who lost his bid for re-election in 2019 and sat out the last legislative assembly. On CBC's The Trailbreaker Wednesday, he hinted at a run for premier and cabinet.
The other past MLAs now making a return are Sahtu MLA-elect Daniel McNeely and Yellowknife Centre MLA-elect Robert Hawkins. McNeely told CBC News he'll run for cabinet, but is undecided on a bid for premier.
CBC North has contacted both Hawkins and Wawzonek, who have yet to state their positions.
Several other incoming MLAs told CBC News they were undecided.
As for Semmler, she says her first priority is to get to know the people who will be her colleagues in the legislature this time around.
"Everybody's going to have their own opinions on what they want to see for the next government and the next leadership, and so that's going to be the process," she said.
She believes the territory's next premier must be somebody "that's going to bring people together, somebody that's going to be strong."
"You're going to need to bring your colleagues and Indigenous leadership together. You're going to need to be able to bring your staff and your senior staff together to be able to, you know, take what the cabinet wants and move it forward," she said.