He was jarred out of the political fray just before Christmas by the death of one of his four children, the victim of a house fire in Mississauga, Ontario.

Yellowknifer: What do you remember about your childhood?

Todd: I remember all kinds of good things. We weren't very wealthy. I left very young, at seventeen, seventeen and a half.

My parents died very young. My mother died at 46. My dad died at 57. So, if anything, I felt shortchanged.

Yellowknifer: Where did you go when you left?

Todd: Cambridge Bay. To work for the Bay.

Yellowknifer: Was it a case of answering an ad in the paper?

Todd: Yeah. It said, 'Adventure in the North for Young Men.' I arrived in Cambridge Bay June 13, 1965.

Yellowknifer: How long were you with the Bay?

Todd: Seven months. Enough to pay off my ticket.

Yellowknifer: Why didn't you stay with the Bay longer?

Todd: I wasn't prepared to work for the money they were offering. I felt there were other opportunities in the country.

Myself and a guy called Dave Dixon, who's still here, were told there were all kinds of opportunities, so we came to Yellowknife to look for them. We both ended up working at Giant mine.

Yellowknifer: Working underground?

Todd: No, in the assay office. That's really where I got in tune with a lot of Yellowknife and Northern people.

Yellowknifer: One of your more striking qualities is your high energy level. Where does that come from?

Todd: I would suspect probably from my mother. She was a very energetic lady. But it also comes from achieving results. There's a certain emotional and physical fix about making things happen.

Yellowknifer: Who has had the most influence on who you are today?

Todd: I've had three mentors in my life. The first one was a guy called Bill Berzowski. He was an organizer for the United Steelworkers of America. He was an incredibly intelligent individual.

I learned an inordinate amount from him about what life's all about, how you make compromises, how you make arrangements and I think I learned a lot about obligations and responsibilities to people.

I worked for another guy called John Fuller. John Fuller was the superintendent of local government. He was a brilliant tactician, a superb writer.

He was an important part of my life in the early '70s. Berzowski was important in my the '60s.

My third mentor, of course, is my partner, Peter Balt. A brilliant man with a social conscience that most people don't understand, and the infinite capacity for sharing and being benevolent.

Yellowknifer: Social conscience, benevolence, sharing? These are not qualities people normally associate with John Todd. People think of you as a hard-nosed businessman. And that's when they're thinking good things.

Todd: Sometimes by being direct, by being action-oriented, people see you a different way. I'd like to think that over the years, I've learned from these three guys. Of course, you meet a whole bunch of other people along the way. I couldn't have been where I am today without a whole variety of other people.

Yellowknifer: How rich are you?

Todd: If you're asking me if I'm a wealthy man, the answer is no. Let's put it this way, I feel extremely fortunate for what's happened to me over the last 40 years. I have done reasonably well, but I've had rewarding experiences in my life I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams.

Yellowknifer: What experiences?

Todd: Look at where I am today.

Yellowknifer: There must be some mornings you wish you could just stay in bed.

Todd: No. Even in difficult times I want to face it.

Yellowknifer: Were you as passionate about the other jobs you've had?

Todd: I loved the union. I loved Giant. I was young, it was exciting, I got attention. Being a politician, you want attention. We all like a crowd. I like to tell a story.

The private sector, for me, was exhilarating. Doing joint ventures and putting aboriginal people into the business community, that was exciting and it still is.

Jack Anawak said to me on many occasions, 'John, you know the real difference between the North and the South? You can actually change city hall in the North.'

I think that's why some of us got elected. We like to change city hall.

Yellowknifer: What is your biggest weakness?

Todd: My impatience. Although I'm trying very hard to be more patient. A wise old man, Pierre Karlik out of Rankin Inlet, once told me, "John you must learn to talk and listen at the same time, because you haven't got the capacity to do them separately." I thought that was a pretty good way to describe who I am.

Yellowknifer: What do you do in your spare time?

Todd: I like kids' hockey. My kids play hockey, so I try to spend time watching them play. I used to have a hobby, called fishing, but this job is very consuming, and it doesn't leave you much time to do things.

Yellowknifer: What's most important to you?

Todd: At the political level, I'd like to get on with doing some good.

You've got to constantly strive to pull yourself out of the confusion and look for the opportunity. The last two years were the most difficult of my life, to be quite frank. And I'm so relieved it's all over, to some extent. Before I leave office, we can get on to some creative stuff and try to meet some of the essential needs of the people we represent.

Yellowknifer: What's most important to you on a personal level?

Todd: I don't like the fact that I'm the target. It's personally painful.

Yellowknifer: You've taken so much criticism, you have to be bulletproof by now.

Todd: No. This was not some clinical exercise. This was a very personal road we went down, that effected people you knew. It was a very painful experience and I'd like some relief from it. I take my responsibilities very seriously.

Yellowknifer: There are rumours you might become a western politician come division. Are you planning on running in Yellowknife in the next election?

Todd: I don't want anything else to motivate me other than trying to do what's best for the territories. I want to keep my energy there. At the end of the day we'll have to see how everything else unfolds. Maybe take a couple of weeks off, if that's possible.

I'm fairly confident there will be a number of options available to me, and one of them may be politics.

Yellowknifer: Loyalty is very important to you, isn't it?

Todd: It's what makes the world go around. The one thing that frustrates the hell out of me is hypocrisy. I want to know what a person thinks of me. And I want them to tell it to my face, straight up, I can handle it.

I want to know when I shake a man's hand and make a deal, I know it can be concluded.

If you want to stick a knife in me, put it in the front. I've got no problem with that.

Yellowknifer: Has your loyalty been betrayed very often?

Todd: In politics it's frequently challenged.

Yellowknifer: How do you mean?

Todd: The political system doesn't always lend itself to my definition of loyalty.

I think sometimes the politics of opportunity overshadows the need to stay loyal and consistent.

I'm a pragmatic politician. I've got a lot of good friends I've grown up with who have stayed loyal to me. They've made the difference to me.

Yellowknifer: Apart from the job, the politics. Is there anything else after that?

Todd: My kids. My family, and my close friends that I've grown up with.

Yellowknifer: You say your friends and family are important to you, but it seems you don't have much time for them.

Todd: I find time. Not as much as I like, but I find time.