For voters in the N.W.T., one election after another

To those feeling fatigued with campaign announcements and photo ops, spare a thought for the voters of the Northwest Territories — we're voting twice in one month this year.

After a historic territorial election night that saw a dozen new faces elected to the 19-member Legislative Assembly — and, for the first time, most of them women — voters would be justified in thinking their job was done.

But Wednesday marked day 22 of a federal campaign that has run, for the most part, in the background of territorial politics.

Now, with the confetti settling on Tuesday night's celebrations, it's day one for the federal candidates to take centre stage.

All five national parties are running candidates for the territory's one seat, hoping to claim victory on Oct. 21.

Inuvik's Mary Beckett, running for the NDP, was the last candidate to be announced. She's spent part of the campaign catching up on travel between the territory's widely-dispersed communities.

"It was just fly-in visits in each community, a few hours here, a few hours there," she said, "I hope I got to see enough people that people realized I was there."

Beckett said to this point, voters haven't been too interested in the federal campaign, owing in part to the large numbers of territorial candidates in some electoral districts.

I had to spend a fair bit of time explaining to people that I wasn't running for MLA- Mary Beckett, NDP candidate in the N.W.T.

"I had to spend a fair bit of time explaining to people that I wasn't running for MLA," she said.

On that score, Liberal candidate Michael McLeod has a major advantage — he's served as the territory's MP since 2015.

McLeod began his re-election campaign shortly after his brother, the territory's first two-term premier in 100 years, stepped down from politics altogether.

"It was kind of sad to see that he's not part of the election," said McLeod.

McLeod said the territorial election didn't really affect his campaign, which has involved 17 trips to communities to date.

"We've run into a lot of MLAs in airports and other places," he said, "but most people are able to distinguish between a territorial politician and a federal one."

But he did say the end of the territorial campaign will free up resources for federal parties.

"We'll step it up a bit now," he acknowledged. "We'll probably have more volunteers, more people on the ground, more room to advertise."

Conservative candidate Yanik D'Aigle, Green Party candidate Paul Falvo, and Luke Quinlan, candidate for the People's Party of Canada, did not respond to requests for comment.

Federal support crucial to territorial initiatives

The N.W.T. will elect only one MP on Oct. 21, but the federal government has an outsized influence on the future direction of the territory.

The territorial campaign was fought partly on competing visions for the economy: one dependent on mining, with exploration eased by major infrastructure investments, and another in which spending is redirected to social programs, tourism, and housing retrofits.

In either case, the new government will be dependent on major coinvestments by the federal government — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

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"The next government… and the premier, are going to have to lobby the federal government," said Wally Schumann, the last assembly's infrastructure minister. "It comes down to, sometimes, a personal relationship that ministers to ministers have."

Depending on the territory's next member of parliament, that could be a problem — Schumann lost his bid for re-election Tuesday night.