Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 11/06) - Excited by national polls that show their party surging ahead of the Liberals, about 40 Conservatives stopped by the Yellowknife campaign office Monday to cheer Western Arctic candidate Richard Edjericon.

"It's a three-way race," Dave Ramsay said over a background hum of laughter and conversation at the largest political gathering of the campaign since the NDP drew 65 supporters to a rally at the Yellowknife Ski Club for Dennis Bevington.

The Kam Lake MLA picked incumbent Liberal Ethel Blondin-Andrew to finish third on Jan. 23, but couldn't choose between Edjericon and Bevington, who came within 54 votes of winning in June 2004.

Ramsay predicted that Edjericon, a former Dettah chief, will take votes from the Liberals in Dene communities, and reclaim support lost in the mergers of the Canadian Alliance and Conservative parties.

"We can do this, Conservatives can win," Kirby Marshall, Edjericon's campaign manager, told the gathering.

"But it takes everyone helping and working together," said Marshall, who has often been the Conservative campaign's only worker.

The open house coincided with the first visit to the Territories by a member of the Conservative shadow cabinet.

Jim Prentice, Conservative critic for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, spent the day with Edjericon in meetings with Premier Joe Handley, Economic Development minister Brendan Bell, the North Slave Metis and Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

The Conservatives released their answers Monday to questions Premier Joe Handley sent to all party leaders at the beginning of the campaign.

In a letter to Handley, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said the party supports the general principles of the $500 million social impact fund for communities on the Mackenzie pipeline route, a proposed Mackenzie valley highway, resource revenue sharing, devolution and a new formula for federal funding, but wants to discuss the details.

"A Conservative government led by Stephen Harper is on the same wavelength as Northerners in terms of their agenda," Prentice said.

"Whether it's settlement of land claims, the pipeline, infrastructure, or economic development, the Conservatives are very supportive," he said.

"You're going to see that carried on. There will be a commitment to devolution and giving people their own destiny.

"We will be very proactive in the North; we're on the same page with native leaders here," he said.