Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Dec 12/05) - The Green Party leader challenged other national leaders to come to Nunavut during a visit to Iqaluit last week to announce his party's stance on the Kyoto accord.

Jim Harris: "(The Kyoto accord) is the most important issue for the North."

But Jim Harris' party doesn't have a candidate on the ground in any of the three Northern ridings.

Feliks Kappi, the Nunavut candidate, won't be campaigning until Dec. 18, when he returns to Iqaluit from university.

Green candidates are listed in all 308 ridings in Canada, but Harris was not aware that the Green Party candidate in the Yukon - Phillipe LeBlond - was going to be running his campaign while on vacation in New Zealand.

When asked if his party could be taken seriously in the North with LeBlond and Kappi absent, Harris said, "I'm not aware of that (LeBlond running from New Zealand) and he (Kappi) will be back on Dec. 18."

A candidate for the NWT has yet to be named.

This was Harris' first visit to Nunavut, and the first by any of the party leaders this election.

The Green party is calling for a halt to all oil and gas subsidies, a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and for a clean air act to be passed by 2008.

"This (the Kyoto accord) is the most important issue for the North," said Harris.