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ENTERPRISE - Twenty-six years ago, Winnie Cadieux and her husband Richard were headed from Yellowknife to Hay River for a Metis association meeting.

There was no place for them to stay in town, so they drove down to the local motel in Enterprise and stopped to eat at the community's only restaurant, also a gas bar and convenience store known as Enterprise Esso.

NWT Association of Communities President Gordon Van Tighem presents Winnie Cadieux with an honorary lifetime membership in the NWTAC during the association's 43rd annual general meeting in Inuvik. Cadieux was a longtime member of Enterprise council and served for several years on the NWTAC's board of directors. - photo courtesy of the NWT Association of Communities

While chatting with the owner, the couple mentioned they were thinking of leaving Yellowknife and raising their six- and seven-year-olds in a smaller community.

"Well, this place is for sale," the owner told them.

Enterprise Esso would soon become Winnie's Kitchen Gift Shop.

"Within a year we were back here in the business and have been here ever since," Cadieux said.

On May 21, the NWT Association of Communities (NWTAC) bestowed upon the business owner, grandmother and former mayor of Enterprise an honorary lifetime membership in recognition of the eight years she worked as an active member of the association.

"It means a great deal. The NWTAC is an organization that I believe greatly in, and for them to recognize the time that I spent with them is very - well, it means a lot," she said.

Originally from Sherwood Park, Alta., Cadieux began her career in municipal politics by running for the local council in 1985, less than a year after moving to Enterprise.

"It was kind of a family goal when we moved from Yellowknife to Enterprise, going from a larger centre to a smaller centre, that we wanted to be involved with our community, that we wanted to help in any way we could, and it turned out that was getting involved at the political level," Cadieux said.

From the time she started on council until she resigned last fall, she helped get Enterprise incorporated as a settlement and worked hard to expand the community, focusing largely on tourism - she has a personal stake in Enterprise's nickname "the handshake of the North."

"We're at the beginning of the road, so a lot of tourists stop here, a lot of people from other communities and other countries, so we like to be able to show them what's available all around the North," she said.

"I never seem to have an end-plan in anything I do, so when I got on council it was mostly just to help with the business of the day and to try and help the community grow and move forward."

She didn't imagine that, more than two decades later, she would be teaching other NWT councillors how to do their jobs more effectively. She's currently an instructor with NWTAC's Elected Officials Training Program, which aims to offer eight courses to Northern councillors within the next two years.

Now, Cadieux says her experience in local politics goes hand-in-hand with running a local business.

"I find it quite easy to make the transition from one to the other.

"They're both different and do have some similarities - you know, you have to work with people, and that kind of thing - and they're both very interesting to me, so I don't find it too difficult," she said.

"In the 25 years we've been here, we're now seeing the children, grown, bringing their children here. So it's really nice. Generations have gone through here."