Yellowknife (Nov 12/04) - To go by voter turnout in the November 2003 territorial election, the winning candidate in the coming byelection for the vacated Twin Lakes seat could require just 78 votes for a ticket to the capital city.

In the contest to sit in the 15th Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife, incumbent Roger Allen defeated his three challengers by capturing 295 votes, 172 more than his nearest rival Clarence Wood garnering 54 per cent of the electorate.

The contest outclassed voter turnout in the more recent federal and territorial elections. Five-hundred-forty-three votes were cast in a riding with 356 registered voters.

A year later, seven candidates want to be the new Twin Lakes representative; all possessing, to varying degrees, relevant job experience.

Tuesday evening, these men and women appeared before the community to state their case as to why constituents should send one of them to Yellowknife.

Opening remarks from the challengers were a mixture of personal resumes, punctuated by rhetoric that can increase applause intensity.

Bob Simpson stood to address the crowd when all other candidates chose to remain seated. Richard Binder asked to know the reason Ingamo Hall -- on the west end of town and in the Twin Lakes riding -- was not chosen over the Midnight Sun Recreation Hall as the venue for the forum.

Despite the applause the comment received, the fact all candidates agreed to appear at the Midnight Sun made it a moot point.

The forum then moved into the "set questions," where candidates had the opportunity to respond to the following, which were known in advance.

Number one: What is your greatest weakness as a prospective MLA and how will you compensate for it, if elected?

Number two: As we are all aware, the GNWT faces serious financial constraints. Assuming that transfer payments from the federal government remain as they are, what are some of the expenditure reductions or tax increases you believe should be considered in order to prevent our financial position from deteriorating further?

And number three: If given the opportunity, what would be the first Private Member's Bill you would introduce in the Legislative Assembly?

Candidates' responses to number one were a variety of phrase-turning.

Answers to the second question provided slightly more insights into the candidates. Federal government promises for a better revenue sharing deal were reflected in several of them shrugging off deficit worries.

Arlene Hansen said she didn't feel comfortable talking numbers when she did not have the figures in front of her.

Pauline Gordon said she would lobby for releasing foreseen development revenues to Inuvik, the community touted to be the most affected by the proposed pipeline.

Tom Williams said he would look at cuts to "the bulging public service."

Wood's response more or less concurred with Williams', however the runner-up to Allen qualified it with his preference for the "top down" approach.

Binder said he favoured looking at other revenue sources, including a territorial sales tax. He said he "would never propose cuts to education."

Simpson spoke of addressing the "slowly deteriorating infrastructure" and revisited Binder's remarks on education calling "cuts to (it) ridiculous."

Answers to the third question marked the beginning of the end to the evening.

Private Member's Bills are difficult to pass, making speculation about them a kind of wish list. The crowd, which had reached standing room only at its zenith -- 250 plus strong -- had thinned considerably by the time questions from the floor were allowed.

As expected, the issues of homelessness, youth, pipeline impacts, addictions, self-government, transparency and maintaining good communication with Twin Lakes constituents were presented. The environment, another such topic, was missing from the debate, trumped by more the immediate issues. As the election is not until Nov. 29, voters will have a while to mull over their decision on who they want to see in Yellowknife.