Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 03/99) - The results are in for OutNorth's survey of candidates.

The Yellowknife gay and lesbian organization asked all 25 Yellowknife MLA candidates to answer three questions and 17 responded.

The first question was do they support legislation to protect and guarantee individual rights including the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons.

Second, do they support the revision of all NWT legislation to include a definition of spouse that is inclusive of same-sex partners.

Finally, would candidates be prepared to work with organizations like OutNorth to promote diversity and end all forms of discrimination.

Yellowknife South was the only riding where all three candidates (Brendan Bell, Mary Beth Levan and Pat McMahon) responded positively to all three questions. In Yellowknife Centre, Bernie Hughes answered yes to all three questions while Jake Ootes did not respond.

In Weledeh, Joe Handley and Mark Heyck responded positively to all three questions while Roy Erasmus and Blake Rasmussen did not respond.

In Range Lake, Sandy Lee and Dave Ramsay were the only candidates to answer positively to all questions. Alex Debogorski responded maybe to the first question and no to the other two. All others did not respond.

In Kam Lake, Steve Petersen answered positively to all questions while Tony Whitford answered yes to the first one, maybe to the third one with an unclear response to the second one. Beaton Mackenzie did not respond.

In Great Slave, Marie Coe and Suzette Montreuil answered positively to all three while Bill Braden answered tentatively yes to the first one with positive responses to the other two. All others did not respond.

In Frame Lake, Charles Dent and Bill Schram answered positively to all three questions while David Wind answered positively to the first question, undecided on the second question and no to the third question.