Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - With a candidate selected, the Western Arctic Conservative Party is attempting to build itself up for an election that could come as early as this spring.

"Locally here, the Conservative party hasn't been the incumbent party for 20 years," said Western Arctic candidate Brendan Bell.

"We've got to reach out now and start to build the organization."

David McPherson, Western Arctic Conservative Party president, said this means attempts to gain membership and build up the party in the public eye.

"Now that we've got a candidate, that will help us," McPherson said. "We will be able to react to some of the announcements from Dennis Bevington and other parties, which we weren't really able to do before."

Bell was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate for the territory this month, the only person to apply before the Nov. 8 deadline. Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington, meanwhile, was acclaimed as the NDP's candidate in January.

For the Green Party, Alex Beaudin is the candidate of record.

At deadline, the Western Arctic Liberal Party had yet to announce a candidate for a potential election. In an earlier interview, president Lana Roeland said she had heard expressions of interest from several people, but no one had officially stepped forward.

She did not return phone calls by deadline.

While no clear date is set for the next federal election, Bell said the wait gives his party a valuable asset - time.

"That's not a bad thing," he said, adding that an election could be years away, potentially.

"We're fairly strong in some of the bigger centres - Yellowknife, Hay River and Inuvik - but we need to expand our reach."

Bell said his first priority is to use the experience he gained in the communities in his two terms as MLA to build regional networks in smaller communities.

"We're going to talk to people about their priorities, their concerns and build a platform that makes sense for the entire territory."

On a more basic level, McPherson said preparations will include getting the constituency's house in order - such as getting its website online.

"That's definitely one of the areas we have to work on for our public profile," he said.

"We hope to have it up relatively soon."

The last Conservative to hold the seat in the NWT was Dave Nickerson, who served as Member of Parliament from 1979-1988.

He was unseated after three terms by Liberal Ethel Blondin-Andrew.