Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Friday, March 23, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Mayor Gord Van Tighem missed his chance at proving his brilliance on national television.

Van Tighem was supposed to appear on the mayor's team for CBC's national program Test the Nation Sunday night.

The interactive show tested seven teams - grouped by occupation - from tattoo artists to surgeons and millionaires. Van Tighem was supposed to be on the mayors' team.

"From the looks of it, I really could have helped them out," said Van Tighem, claiming he got well above the average mayor's score of 110.

Van Tighem was stuck at an airport in Calgary for eight hours before he was told there were no flights available to Toronto before Monday morning.

Van Tighem said he kept himself entertained in the airport talking with a woman from Whitehorse.

When he tuned in to the show, he was surprised to see her sitting in the front row.

He didn't realize that the woman he was speaking with at the airport was Whitehorse mayor Bev Buckway.

The mayors finished fourth on the show, falling behind fitness instructors, millionaires, and surgeons who won first.

"What does that mean when the fitness instructors are ahead of the mayors," said Wendy Mesley, who co-hosted the show along with Brent Bambury.

The show was set up to allow viewers to follow along at home, completing an IQ test to see how they rated.

Viewers could also complete the IQ test on-line.

The show's "nerve centre" calculated the on-line results as the show progressed.

Two hundred and sixty two people in the Northwest Territories completed the test, scoring an IQ average of 110.9 - the highest provincial or territorial IQ in the country.

Other results also concluded that men have a higher IQ than women, redheads are apparently the smartest, and night owls beat out early risers.