SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Western Arctic candidates are preparing for public forums which are set to start, throughout the NWT, next week.

The first will be in Yellowknife on Wednesday, April 20.

The NWT Chamber of Commerce is hosting the first candidates' forum, running from 9 to 10:15 a.m. at the Yellowknife Inn, according to chamber secretary and treasurer Hughie Graham. Graham said he believes all five candidates will be attending the forum.

The candidates are NDP incumbent Dennis Bevington, Conservative Sandy Lee, Liberal Joe Handley, Green Party candidate Eli Purchase, and Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party Canada candidate Bonnie Dawson.

The next candidates' forum will be put on by Alternatives North, a coalition of social justice groups, on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m. at Northern United Place.

Aggie Brockman, volunteer with Alternatives North and organizer of the NUP public forum, said, as of Tuesday, Bevington, Handley and Purchase have indicated they will attend.

Brockman said Lee will not be attending the forum.

"We have been told that the Conservative candidate can't make it. We've kind of asked if there are any available dates but they haven't gotten back to us so it's getting late to make any changes," said Brockman.

Lee couldn't be reached for comment but her campaign office said she is travelling on the day of the forum.

Brockman said Dawson "may well come" but Alternatives North has not had much communication with her.

Alternatives North invites other organizations concerned about social justice such as the NWT Status of Women, Dene Nation, Ecology North and the Federation of Labour to attend and ask a question each before the forum is opened to the general public for questions.

Campaigning online

All five candidates have a presence online, using social media and multimedia tools to try to reach more of the general public.

Green party candidate Eli Purchase, besides having his own website, Twitter account and Facebook page, is on YouTube with daily video entries.

"It allows me to go into a little bit more detail about what I'm doing everyday. I'm trying to have fun with it. I'm trying to engage as many people as I can and I think that using social media is a really great way to do that," he said.

Purchase said having a presence online is also beneficial when he doesn't have the budget to travel as extensively as he might like.

"What I'm trying to do is to reach out as much as I can in the territories."

Purchase also has more Twitter followers than the other candidates, coming in at 85. Liberal Joe Handley comes in second with 68, NDP incumbent Dennis Bevington follows closely with 67, Conservative candidate Sandy Lee holds 55 followers while Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party Canada candidate Bonnie Dawson has 11. Dawson uses the name "CapriChandra."

Bevington has the most "likes" on his political Facebook page, with 234. He said using social media is a great way to get young people engaged in politics.

"It's great for sharing photos of what's going on in the campaign and events that you're conducting. We use it extensively and have for about four years. It really does an effective job of communicating with people," said Bevington.

All five candidates are present on Twitter, Facebook and have their own websites stating their platforms and biographies.

Signs of the times

Passersby might notice the smaller Liberal campaign signs are a bit more orange than the usual Liberal red. According to Liberal candidate Joe Handley, the 24-inch by 18-inch signs have an orange tinge due to a printing error.

"Somewhere along the way they got paint that has a bit of an orange tinge to it," said Handley. "They were prepared in the North. At least we're supporting the businesses ... investing our money here in the territories."

He said there are close to 100 signs ordered that will be more red in colour.

"We'll correct it. Hopefully it's not too orange. I don't think they're NDP colours. They're redder than that. The materials we've gotten since have been a better shade of red," he said.

There are Green party signs throughout the city stating "Vote Green" but there is no mention of the party's candidate, Eli Purchase. He said this is all part of being green.

"We reuse things. We recycle and all that good stuff. A number of those signs are from the last election," he said.

Purchase said the party will be receiving a few signs with his name and website information on them in the near future.

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