Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 08/99) - Fourteen year deputy minister Joe Handley will now move from being in the GNWT's bureaucracy to its political side.

The 56-year-old is the first MLA from the new Yellowknife riding of Weledeh by taking 57 per cent of the vote.

Incumbent MLA Roy Erasmus picked up only 20 per cent while Blake Rasmussen and NDP candidate Mark Heyck picked up 11 per cent each.

"There's major things we've got to do differently," Handley told a crowd at his campaign headquarters.

"The first thing (that) I want is get on with is a Weledeh plan of action."

That plan of action has social issues at its core.

Handley explained that his plan of action is "right from women's issues to children's issues to all the social problems that are causing people not to be able to take advantage of jobs."

He also said getting the GNWT's economic house in order and focusing on tourism were two other issues he heard about on doorsteps.

"I want to work hard with the Yellowknife Dene people to get their land claim settled," he said.

Handley thanked his wife Theresa for her support and added, "There's going to be people who say things about her husband that she's never heard them say before because there are bound to be people who disagree with decisions that are made."

Erasmus said he will spend more time with his family and take some time to think about what to do next in life.

"Now I can say what I think without it ending up in the media," Erasmus said after the vote result had filtered in.

"Politics is a dirty game. You work really hard for people and then for one reason or another they don't vote you back in."

Handley has been in the North for more than 14 years and took a leave from his position as deputy minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

Prior to his appointments with the GNWT, Handley was a teacher and a university professor. He was also a director of education at the first band-controlled school in Canada, Fort Alexander school in Manitoba.

Handley, who is of Metis heritage, was also the first aboriginal graduate of the masters program at the University of Saskatchewan in Indian and Northern Education.

He has also operated his own business raising and boarding horses for the past seven years.