Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 05/99) - Concern over the future of the post-division Northwest Territories isn't restricted to home-grown politicians and aboriginal leaders -- there's also a high school senior in Kentucky who says he has a vested interest in the matter.

You see, his name is Bob, and he says he would like our name to be Bob, too.

Bob Mellen's imagination was captured by the results of the 1996 government telephone survey soliciting suggestions for names for the new NWT. While the vast majority of respondents backed the original Northwest Territories name, the runner-up was, in fact, Bob (suspected at the time to be the brainchild of Nunavutmiut rabble-rousers).

And though Lynda Comerford, co-ordinator of the Special Committee on Western Identity, has repeatedly assured Bob that the survey was just that, a survey and not a binding referendum -- and that in any case the issue has been indefinitely dropped -- Bob cried foul and has pursued a cyber-campaign of awareness.

"I can see how you may think that Bob is some sort of joke," wrote the 17-year-old senior at Louisville's duPont Manual Magnet high school. "But I kid you not, Mrs. Comerford -- Bobs abound, both in your country and in mine...there are 154,000 confirmed Bobs here in the U.S."

In fact, Bob (jokingly?) has said the matter is so much not a joke that it represents a constitutional crisis, with an evil GNWT (OK, so maybe that part's true) denying its citizens their right to call their land Bob.

"I feel like Eva Peron oppressing my people," Comerford said Tuesday, laughing and adding she gets about seven e-mails a week from visitors to Bob's Web site at www.bobdotcom.com who evidently get caught up in the let-my-Bob-go euphoria.

"Miss Comerford, I must say your naziesque tactic of removing a name from the ballot is wrong," cried an Andrew in Kentucky.

"Your country's reputation as a somewhat democratic state is on the line," warned a Cathy in England.

"My involvement in the campaign can be attributed to pride for my name, and a chronic bout of senioritis," explained Bob on Tuesday. "Being a senior in high school, and having already been accepted to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), I've been pretty apathetic at school, so I'm channelling my energy into the Bob, Canada campaign."

A part-time Web designer, Bob has set up a slick, imaginative site, which even advertises Bob T-shirts produced by Inkit in Yellowknife.

But whether the site helps enlighten Americans about Arctic affairs remains to be seen.

"I think people here in the U.S. think of Canada as somewhat of an enigma," Bob wrote. "Maybe if the Bob campaign is successful, Americans would be a little more receptive to Canada (at least the new territory with the familiar name)."