by P.J. Harston
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 30/97) - Right from the get go, independent candidate Wally Firth made his mark on the campaign trail.

First he announced his candidacy as an independent, then mounted an unsuccessful bid for the NDP nomination, and then ran as an independent candidate anyway.

The political veteran has already been an MP. He served as the NWT's sole representative in Ottawa from 1972 until 1979. While sitting as a member of the NDP party, he successfully lobbied for a second federal seat in the North.

Since then, Firth has spent his time instructing pilots and as a commercial pilot and as a broadcaster with the CBC.

The Fort McPherson resident ran a frugal campaign, using recycled buttons and bumper stickers, holding one-man rallies at the Yellowknife airport and zipping round the lower part of the riding in his office on wheels -- a pickup truck.

Initially Firth's campaign centred on bringing partisan politics to the North. He said he would try to establish the NWT's first political party, the Northern Party.

"It should be in place, with a leader, a slate of candidates and policies in time for the next election -- that's the goal," he said in April.

By the end of the campaign, Firth was calling for a minority government, saying less power is better.

"A government that is too powerful does not respond to the wishes and desires of the public," he said at an all-candidates meeting in Yellowknife last week.

He was also the only candidate of five who was willing to go to jail over signing a commitment to Dene Nation Grand Chief Bill Erasmus to improve the situation of First Nations people across Canada.

(NDP candidate Mary Beth Levan agreed to sign but then backed out as did Reformer Mike Watt. Liberal candidate Ethel Blondin-Andrew said signing such a commitment is illegal and PC candidate Bob Dowdall said he couldn't sign it on behalf of his party.)

And while Firth is probably not the front-runner heading into Monday's election, he did manage to turn a few heads and make a few people listen with his folksy campaign and personable style.

Said one spectator at an all-candidates meeting in Yellowknife mid-May: "What we all need is a little laughter, and I think that's what Wally brought tonight.