Numbers up for NDP
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 29/00) - "You fought the good fight," a supporter consoled candidate Dennis Bevington after the outcome of the election became clear.
The good fight, focusing on social issues as opposed to tax and debt reduction, wasn't good enough to elect an NDP candidate since Wally Firth was re-elected in 1974.
On Monday night NDP hopes of halting the Liberal domination of the Western Arctic suffered a fatal blow at 8:45, when results of Hay River flowed in.
The South Slave was one of the focuses of the NDP campaign but that was not reflected in the totals reported for the place nostalgically known as the Hub. Bevington finished more than 200 votes behind Liberal Ethel Blondin-Andrew and 53 votes behind Alliance candidate Fred Turner.
"We thought we were making some ground in Hay River and I guess we were wrong," Bevington later said. Some consolation: the NDP garnered about double the amount of votes they got in 1997.
The NDP got some satisfaction down Hwy 5, getting 30 more votes than the Liberals in Fort Smith. Earlier in the campaign, Mayor Peter Martselos declared the community was 100 per cent behind Blondin-Andrew.
But Inuvik was almost the same story as Hay River, with the NDP finishing second to the Liberals in every poll.
Overall, the party was about 1,000 votes closer to beating the Liberals this time around, but still 2,000 votes short of that goal.
"It's certainly discouraging but at the same time any time the NDP runs in an election issues that other parties ignore are brought to the fore," said campaign worker Steve Petersen.
"Win, lose or draw, I think we always raise the level of discussion around elections."
Bevington said his hopes were hampered by the national Liberal trend, adding the Canadian Alliance won some of the protest votes that would have gone to the NDP.
"But I think we've established a solid foundation to build from," said the former Fort Smith Mayor. "This is a clear message that we've arrived back in the NWT."
