Northern News Services

In the East

Nancy Karetak Lindell received overwhelming endorsement from Nunavut Liberals in Cambridge Bay Wednesday.

Karetak Lindell, running for the party nomination against Eva Adams-Klassen, was chosen by 323 of 415 party members.

Tentative plans are to start her campaign Monday in Iqaluit.

"I haven't been to too many communities in that region, so I'm really looking forward to meeting the people of those communities."

A lifetime resident of Arviat, secretary-treasurer of the Keewatin Inuit Association and former hamlet councillor, Lindell will be looking to defend the riding held up until last month by fellow Liberal Jack Anawak.

Anawak gave up the seat to accept an appointment as interim commissioner for Nunavut.

No nominees for the Nunavut NDP representative have been named and no nomination meeting has yet been scheduled. The party's Western Arctic candidate, Mary Beth Levan, said Rankin Inlet resident Hunter Tootoo may be poised to accept the nomination, however, nothing was confirmed by News/North deadlines.

Nunavut Progressive Conservatives will select their candidate Tuesday night in Iqaluit.

So far, only one potential candidate, Ookalik Eegeesiak, has put a name forward for the nomination. The meeting happens starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Astro Centre.

The Reform Party doesn't include Nunavut in its list of riding candidates or scheduled nomination meeting.

In the West

"Speak up, that's the answer," said Mary Beth Levan, candidate for the Western Arctic NDP, referring to issues sensitive to the North including transfer payments, gun control legislation and job creation.

"NDPers are the only ones to stand up for Northern interests in Parliament," she said.

Levan, a first-time party candidate beat out Fort McPherson's Wally Firth for the NDP nomination the day before the election was called last week.

Levan has been a member of the New Democrats for 25 years and for the past three years has been president of the Western Arctic NDP riding association.

For the past 15 years, Levan has lived and worked in Yellowknife in the areas of human development and social research and has had the opportunity to work in many western arctic communities.

The only other party to nominate a candidate in the race to unseat Liberal Ethel-Blondin-Andrew is Reform, which chose Wrigley businessman Mike Watt on Wednesday.

Watt has made Blondin-Andrew's support for her government's gun-control legislation the key plank in his platform. "She didn't listen" to her constituents, he said.

Firth is again running as an independent.