Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 25/00) - With the election day just 34 days ahead, the only challenger to declare a candidate so far is the NDP, who will be represented by Dennis Bevington.

The Canadian Alliance has formed an executive, but has yet to select a candidate.

The NWT Progressive Conservative association is in a holding pattern. President Dave Ramsay said last week the main goal was to defeat the Liberals, and hinted that joining forces with the Canadian Alliance would be preferable to splitting the vote.

"The Alliance believes MPs are there to represent their constituents," said Alliance organizer David Wind. "They won't hide behind cabinet solidarity when it comes to taking a stand."

Bevington said that's something the NDP is going to key on. "I've talked with people all over the territory and I think the question of effective representation is very large in people's minds," said the former mayor of Fort Smith.

"Certainly when you have a representative who has to toe the party line in Ottawa, it doesn't allow the real issues of the Northwest Territories to be expressed in parliament." Despite the impressive network of Liberal supporters in the North, he is not entering the race only to espouse NDP ideals, he's campaigning to win.

"There's no question about it," Bevington said, adding, "If you look at the last election, the Liberals got 41 per cent of the vote here. The opposition was split pretty badly. I think Canadians across the country are going to vote strategically to ensure there is a decent opposition, perhaps even a minority government."