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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Former Green Party leader Jim Harris visited Yellowknife this week to convince voters thinking about voting Green to stay the course in this final week of campaigning before next Tuesday's election date.

Harris arrived in Yellowknife for a 24-hour visit Tuesday afternoon, after which he attended a meeting with Western Arctic Green candidate Sam Gamble and his supporters.

Former Green Party leader Jim Harris, left, was in Yellowknife this week with hopes of giving his party's Western Arctic candidate Sam Gamble, seated here with his wife Jessa, a lift before next Tuesday's general election. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Yellowknife was the only campaign stop Harris has made anywhere in the country since the writ was dropped Sept. 7.

The former leader, who held the reins from 2003 to 2006 before relinquishing the job to Elizabeth May, said his main role in this federal election is to offer his party back room support. However, he said wanted to make an exception for the NWT to highlight the greater impact climate change has had on the North.

"Climate change is impacting Northern communities at twice the rate of any other region in Canada, so it's really threatening the lifestyle of the North," said Harris.

"(George) Bush's inaction, Stephen Harper's inaction on climate is really a violation of human rights because it threatens the very fabric of society. This is why I'm here."

Harris said if a Green government was in power, fuel efficiency standards would be enforced. This, he said, would benefit the environment and Northerners' bank accounts.

"Oil prices in the long term are only going to go up," said Harris.

"When you buy a pick-up truck you cannot buy an energy-efficient pick-up truck because there is no choice to do that. That's how a Green government would benefit Northerners because we would put in mandatory fuel efficiency standards."

Harris is the latest high-profile federal party functionary to arrive in the NWT to offer a boost for their candidate in the Western Arctic race.

NDP leader Jack Layton made a brief stop in Fort Smith on the opening day of the campaign Sept. 8; Indian Affairs and Northern Development minister Chuck Strahl visited Yellowknife to lend his support to Conservative candidate Brendan Bell Sept. 23.

With four days left until the election, only the Western Arctic Liberals remain without a high-profile visit for their campaign although Liberal leader Stephane Dion recently visited neighbouring Nunavut in an attempt to hold their party's seat there.

In the last election, the Western Arctic Greens captured 338 votes for 2.09 per cent of the vote and finished fourth out of five candidates. The party is currently polling at 13 per cent nationally.

Gamble is urging voters not to vote strategically in this election and go Green if it's their first choice.

"The big thing is combating this idea of strategic voting, which in my opinion isn't strategic at all," said Gamble.

"If you want to send a positive message of change to politicians, not just federally, people really need to vote for their first choice."