HAY RIVER - There was no debating Hay River's success at hosting a five-day national event last week.

As Ella Thomson of Winnipeg listens, Zachary Pangborn of Hay River speaks at a session of the National Student Debating Seminar, held from March 9-14 in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The community hosted the Canadian Student Debating Federation's 41st annual national seminar from March 9 to 14.

By all accounts, the seminar, which brought together 72 participants, representing all provinces and the NWT, was an overwhelming success.

In fact, the success of the Hay River event led the national organization to create a board position encompassing the NWT, Nunavut and the Yukon.

"It was really nice just to know that Hay River was involved in something big like this," said Zachary Pangborn, a student at the host community's Diamond Jenness Secondary School and part of the 10-member Team NWT.

"It was nice to see a bunch of provinces and communities come together, especially in the NWT, and just come to something new," added the 16-year-old.

The seminar had been held in the NWT only once before – in Yellowknife in 1975.

The visiting students learned more about the North, both in preparing in advance for the debates and by various cultural activities during their visit.

"It's awesome the amount that you learn about the North that you would never hear about down south. It's amazing," said Nicholas Lucyk of Regina, Sask. "We always focus on the bottom half of Canada when we're at home. It's only once you come up here and see the people and hear about all the issues that you actually learn about it."

Helen Beaumont of Winnipeg said she "absolutely" learned more about Northern issues.

"I thought I did a lot of research, and then I got here and I felt I learned more listening to the other people speaking in the debates than I had from researching," she said.

Participants debated Northern issues such as cultural preservation, resource development and Arctic sovereignty.

Most students, who ranged in age from 14 to 19 years old, competed in English, but the seminar included bilingual and francophone divisions.

The top debaters for each province and the NWT were named at the seminar's closing ceremonies hosted by K'atlodeeche First Nation.

The top debater from the NWT was Greg Hanna of Sir John Franklin High School in Yellowknife. Hanna ranked second in the English-language debates, just behind a student from Alberta.

As part of the Hay River seminar, students also debated in the consensus style used by the NWT government.

Along with learning more about Northern issues, the visiting students participated in cultural activities such as dog sledding, snowshoeing, drumming, Dene games, ice fishing, caribou hair tufting, and flying in Buffalo Airways' planes made famous on 'Ice Pilots NWT'.

Geoff Buerger, a seminar organizer is also principal of Hay River's Princess Alexandra School, said the seminar "hit a homerun" with its Northern cultural activities.

"It just blew their doors off," he said. "I think they had a great experience."

Buerger, who led the committee which worked for the past two years to organize the Hay River seminar, was selected to represent the tree territories on the debate federation's national board.

Some students also travelled to Yellowknife to visit the legislature and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Others visited Fort Smith, where debates were also held.

The NWT team consisted of seven students from Hay River and one each from Yellowknife, Tulita and Norman Wells.

The national seminar began as a centennial project in 1967 to promote national understanding and the skill of informed and respectful debating.

"It was originally intended to bring together articulate, well-informed students from across the country to meet each other, but also to experience the culture of places outside their own province," Buerger explained.

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