Yellowknife (Feb 28/03) - The ink smudge that goes from the pen to the page to the pinkie finger, or the struggle with scissors or can openers are small but undeniable facts of life for left handers.

And nowhere, it seems, are left-handers in greater abundance, than in the NWT legislative assembly.

Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen, Hay River North MLA Paul Delorey, ministers Joe Handley and Michael Miltenberger are all lefties.

So is security officer Craig Walters and Debbie Pottle, Paul Delorey's assistant.

"The more intelligent people are," said Pottle, whose husband is also left-handed.

Inquiries about lefties in the legislative assembly led to laughs and stories from those who live it daily, and those who just work with them.

Security guard Lucy Counsel said she has six kids and one of them, a daughter, is left-handed.

"There's no stigma anymore," Counsel said, "but back 40 to 50 years ago, oh yes, there was."

Counsel went on to say her daughter is very musical, and being left-handed "hasn't been an impediment at all."

Walters held up his pen in his right hand last week and proudly proclaimed, "I was right handed until the age of 10 when I broke my hand." He taught himself to write with the other, and notices lefties when they sign in at the front desk at the leg.

"These four people here," he said, pointing to the top of his sheet, "were all left- handed."

Often the left-hander has a story to share about how they came to be left-handed, or what it was like growing up learning how not to smudge their handwriting writing across the page, or just dealing with teasing from right-handed kids.

Groenewegen's assistant, Wendy Morgan, said she knows about lefties because her husband and her mother -- who recently sent her a book on the subject -- are also left- handed.

"Sitting next to a leftie at the dinner table is not fun," she said.

Betty Low, Roger Allen's assistant, is proud to be right-handed and goes as far as to say "it is a right-handed world," adding "I feel sorry for you guys. We have it made as righties."

Back at the front desk, a child struggled to write his name on Wednesday afternoon with his right hand. His mother peered over his shoulder and said: "It's amazing. The other day he started writing with his other (left) hand. Kids are amazing like that."