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Whether it's hockey, figure skating or broomball, the mantra of being a good sport is commonly preached.

Senior and recreational hockey players showed exactly what being a good sport means after it was announced that both rinks at the Multiplex had to unexpectedly shut down for a month due to technical difficulties.

The adult players sacrificed their ice time for October so that young puck chasers and figure skaters could practice and play games - even if for less time than usual - at the Yk Community arena.

The city is the target of criticism for not having been better prepared for the mechanical glitch. Maybe the problem would have been detected had the equipment been tested earlier. Maybe not. Like a car that runs smoothly but then suddenly starts leaking fluid, sometimes mechanical malfunctions strike quickly and without warning.

Where the city could have undoubtedly done a better job was in communicating the problem to those affected rather than waiting weeks. The user groups deserved to have all the advance notice they could get.

The circumstances are frustrating but we only need to think back to 2000 when Yellowknife somehow made due with only the Yk Community arena when the aging Gerry Murphy arena was forced to close.

So now there will be some short-term inconvenience while the Multiplex rinks sit empty, but it will be made easier thanks to the generosity of the rec and senior hockey players.

"Some churches place being right above being good. We should be open to other faiths and people," said Peter Chynoweth to a multifaith group at the Explorer Hotel.

Chynoweth spoke about Christianity during the second annual World Religion Conference put on by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The theme up for discussion this year was 'Is Religion Dead?'

He was joined by representatives from other faiths from within the territory including Shambhala Buddhism, aboriginal spirituality and the Muslim community from Ontario.

Each representative spoke of their religion and discussed why they think religion, in general, is not dead.

However, beyond the written theme of the conference was a broader lesson people could really learn from the participants. Though they all come from very different religious backgrounds - some which have historically been hostile towards each other - they peacefully came together and civilly discussed a theme common among the diverse groups.

From those involved in organized religions to those practising their own version of spirituality, the NWT boasts a small population with a wide array of beliefs and cultures. The representatives who met this weekend should be applauded for putting their differences aside.

The general consensus of the conference's participants was that religion is far from being dead.

Whether or not this is the case, this weekend's demonstration of unity shows tolerance and understanding are on the rise.

It's been entertaining to listen to Nunavut politicians offer their thoughts on why there are so few candidates for the territorial election.

Some say many Nunavummiut can't be bothered running because of the travel involved and the fact they'd have to live in Iqaluit for a portion of the year.

The fiveday period to declare one's candidacy has been called too short. Others point to those barred from running because they didn't file their financial paperwork from the 2004 election.

I could name a riding or two those people might find success in, but I digress.

While there's no doubt it's troubling to see our number of candidates drop almost in half from 2004 (not to mention two MLAs being acclaimed and another riding not getting a single candidate), none of the reasons put forth by the politicians hold water.

Being somewhat of a politics junkie, I promised myself I'd erase my data banks and keep an open mind towards non-party politics when I arrived in the North in 1998.

More than a decade later, I am of the opinion that non-party politics is to good governance as what Pee-wee Herman is to serious theatre.

Can you name one pressing item on a candidate's platform in your riding?

Of course not, because while we have all sorts of pressing items in Nunavut, we're fresh out of platforms.

Non-party politics is all about power and popularity, perceived or real, with a healthy smattering of the number of friends and family members a candidate has in a riding with a small population base.

Strike two in finding more candidates is that the average Nunavummiut can't get their head around the majority of issues pushed by our government in the past nine years.

Ever attend a public meeting in your community by one of the numerous committees touring Nunavut during that time?

In all honesty, did you ever see more than 10 people there not counting those hosting the event?

The truth is many people whisper behind closed doors that it was easier to get funding back in the days of the evil NWT empire, and with the state of the financial world in Canada and the U.S.A. it's only going to get worse.

And, finally, many Nunavummiut now realize that with no party affiliation involved and the territory almost totally dependent on federal transfers, there's only so much gravy you're going to bring to your riding no matter how good an MLA you are.

And that means you're going to be putting up with a whole lot of people knocking on your door and visiting your constituency office with a whole lot of questions and complaints you have no answers for.

Successful new blood in politics is all about support, resources, direction and information, which, oddly enough, all come with party affiliation.

That day may yet come to Nunavut, but not today.

Until then, get to know where those running in your riding stand on the issues important to you and cast your vote accordingly.

Unless, of course, you happen to be related to the other candidate.

So a bison almost killed me. It's a funny thing to say, especially from someone born in Eastern Canada where we only see bison when we pay our admission fee to the city zoo, or in the form of a $30 steak at the local eatery. So instead of gazing in amazement of the glorious bison, or dousing it in A1 steak sauce, I was watching my life flash before my eyes, albeit slow, due to the fact I was going 30 clicks.

From the side of a house it streaked out in front of me as I hit a small turn in the road. Bison seem like slow, stupid animals, but man, they can really move when they want to, probably faster than myself. Actually, if I were a betting man, I'd be putting my money down on the hairy beast (for those that might be thinking otherwise, I meant the bison). I cursed at the burly mammal as it gave me a blank stare. Talking to locals afterwards however, I learned they couldn't see you when they are looking straight ahead but can only see you from the side. The Creator must have had an error message pop up during the bison-making process and had to restart the animal design system.

It was my first encounter with a bison and I can tell you now, if I lived around them for a long period of time, I would dislike them just as much as people in Fort Providence do. I was at the local saloon having a 'sarsaparilla' that evening and the barkeep told me they had actually thought about putting them all on trucks and shipping them out of town. Seems like a good idea to me, I thought, I would get quite tired of stepping in their conveniently placed steamy piles of - well - you get the point, every time I took my dogs out.

It's odd being an East Coast boy and seeing a large animal, a wild one at that, somewhat domesticated. They're like big, ugly cows that just roam the streets, pooping where they please and going where they want - hence the high number of broken fences in the hamlet, two for every normal one by my guess.

If I had a fence around my yard, it would be electrically charged, not a deathly big charge but enough to make there eyes bulge. I'm not promoting cruelty towards the bison, but an example has to be set. Hopefully they aren't really stupid, like the lemming and copy what their counterpart has done. My power bill that month would make my bank account cry a little.

Or maybe, I would just train them to do my every bidding, the first point of order being to stop eating my lawn. I wonder if they could produce a paper for me?

Andrew Livingstone is the interim editor for the Deh Cho Drum while editor Roxanna Thompson is on holidays.

Where can we go from here? Another rash of youth vandalism has the town talking about change and questioning policing efforts such as the curfew.

For a lot of people in this community, youth violence and vandalism is nothing new. We all grew up with it.

Some of us were the ones who lived in fear of bullies and wouldn't dare to walk the streets at night.

Others were involved in shady activities such as senseless damage to public and private property and worse.

Now we have a new member of our community who won't go out at night for fear of ridicule and harassment (see story page 16).

That nice young woman is scarred by the actions of bad apples.

Every year we have to deal with angry cab drivers who are being abused by youth.

Our lives are being affected every day by roving bands of unruly teens.

Years ago, the community had meetings about youth activity. Last year, there was a massive meeting about the effects a curfew would have on the town.

All of the major players in town met again last week to discuss what could be done.

I'm all for finding a solution but we can't keep bringing the same people back to the drawing board because, frankly, they can't find a way to fix this.

The sad thing is that most of the problem lies in the values of our region.

People were brought up a certain way and now they're raising their kids the same way.

Nobody is learning anything new which is something that needs to be addressed.

I would suggest training be offered to parents on how to discipline their offspring, without resorting to violence.

Somewhere in the last few decades, people stopped disciplining their kids and now we have a generation of smart-alec young people who think they're untouchable.

People are talking about how most of the population is suffering from the actions of a minority of the people in town.

With no bylaw officer on the streets and a lack of police presence, people are losing faith in the justice system.

We need to make a stand against this sort of behaviour. Of course, we can't have people taking the law into their own hands but something needs to be done and soon.

I've typed my fingers sore in past editorials about youth, at first backing them up and giving them the benefit of the doubt, but things are looking bleak.

Yes, most kids are good but they need to start taking action, too.

I've said it many times before that our little society is ruled by factions and peer pressure.

If the youth of the town were convinced we as adults were united against their bad behaviour, it would change.

Unless we're all willing to get our hands dirty and change the way we live and act with each other, there's no use in getting worked up when our kids turn into hoodlums.