I was surprised that CBC Newsworld covered the NWT Legislative Assembly Election on Oct. 1, 2007, but was even more shocked when it ended one hour later! No results, nothing! What a joke! If CBC can cover provincial elections for hours on end, why can't it cover territorial elections properly? Good question.

Anyways, watching that one hour coverage - done documentary style - reminded me of the many times I ran for Territorial Council in the 1970s. To think I ran four times.

The first time was in December of 1970 out of Fort Franklin when I lost by some 60 votes against incumbent Lyle Trimble. Then again out of Norman Wells in 1974 when I lost by 11 votes against George Barnaby (no relation), who then quit 11 months later. I'm no quitter, so I ran in the byelection and this time was beaten by Pete Fraser. In 1979, I ran in Yellowknife Centre and was beaten by Bob MacQuarrie. Bob became a good MLA and later Speaker and Chairman of the Unity Committee that ended up recommending division for the NWT!

That short CBC hour brought back a lot of souvenirs and happy memories. I was always sad that I lost in all these elections but what the hell. "C'est la vie"! I always tried hard because I believed that elected people should govern the North - that an MLA should be a full-time job with a decent salary. In those years it was a part-time job with (according to me) hardly any salary, and certainly no perks, pension or benefits at all!

What might surprise you now is that these part-time MLAs with menial salaries made more decisions in one year of much shorter sessions than the full-time MLAs have done in the past four years - with highly increased salaries, perks, benefits and very long full-time sessions!

To think that we've fought so hard for more responsible government since 1967 - that's 40 bloody years - and the North seems to elect more and more irresponsible MLAs that can't make a decision if their lives depended on it!

I certainly hope this new crew of MLAs will do better. I wish all of them lots of luck and for the sake of the North hope they get the job done.

- Claire Barnabe, a former longtime Northerner, is now a political and management consultant in Ottawa