SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The NDP leader may have been 10 days behind Prime Minister Stephen Harper in coming North, but he arrived Wednesday evening in Yellowknife only six points behind the Conservative leader in national polls.

NDP leader Jack Layton speaks with Dylan Oliver, 16, at incumbent MP Dennis Bevington's campaign office Thursday morning. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

On Thursday, Jack Layton spoke to hundreds of Yellowknifers crammed wall-to-wall in an early morning open rally at NDP candidate Dennis Bevington's campaign office on 51 Avenue. He announced funding promises for completion of the Dempster Highway, from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, and for the development of a Mackenzie Valley Highway.

"We see these other parties on the attack," Layton told the crowd. "Well, we've got some attacks of our own that we want to launch."

He then said, to a fanfare of cheers from the audience, his party wants to attack poverty, climate change, unemployment, doctor shortages, "retirement insecurity," and issues facing aboriginal peoples.

Layton spoke with Yellowknifer that morning before he departed to discuss issues facing the city and the NWT.

On addictions, Layton maintained his party prioritizes prevention over treatment. He said he wanted to try and break the cycle with repeat offenders - "people going through a cycle where they end up in trouble and then just, when they're released they get back in the same trouble again because the root cause in the addiction hasn't been properly addressed."

He said an addictions treatment or rehab centre, however, is a GNWT territory.

"You wouldn't want to have Ottawa come sailing in with unilateral programs assuming that 'Ottawa knows best,'" he said, adding he wants to work with communities and "grassroots groups" to tackle the problem.

He also stood in support of Bevington's private member's bill to allow the GNWT to borrow up to 70 per cent of its estimated annual revenue. If in place, it would have allowed the territorial government to borrow up to $951 million, whereas now it has a debt wall of $575 million.

"We can have essentially the financial modernization of the NWT government operations," he said.

"It's that kind of practical, down-to-earth, get-results approach that I think is why so many people support Dennis."

Layton referred to the Western Arctic incumbent MP as a "champion of the North" at the rally, but he was mum on whether, should his party manage to form a government following the election, he would give Bevington a seat on cabinet.

"Now I'm not going to announce a cabinet," he said. "I first of all have to get my MPs elected across the country."

Despite that, he sang high praises of his candidate.

"He's very, very effective ... in speaking up for the North and in making sure the issues are being addressed."

"The proposals he was bringing to the House of Commons, those motions and proposed bills, are now being embraced by other parties, and are going to happen," he said, citing Bevington's borrowing limit bill.

After the rally, across town at Sandy Lee's headquarters, the Conservative candidate spoke about her concerns regarding the NDP's position on implementing a carbon emissions cap and trade system, and its "devastating" effects on the NWT.

"The price of gas is skyrocketing already," she said. "The carbon tax would add 10 cents per litre to gasoline and it would also add extra cost to heating fuel."

"We cannot afford any higher cost on energy."

She also said she isn't put off in the slightest at the recent surge in national support for the NDP.

"My race has always been against the NDP here so I'm not concerned about what's happening in the polls."

After the rally Layton went to the St. Patrick High School gymnasium and, saying he wasn't there to make a speech, took questions for half an hour from the hundreds

of students who packed the room.

The students sat in rapt attention when he spoke, and asked questions on how he plans to reduce the deficit, what his party will do for students, how he would tackle Arctic sovereignty, and how he plans to support

the military, among other things.

"I think the questions were amazing," said Scott Willoughby, a social studies teacher at Sir John Franklin High School.

"I think they're involved in the political process. It's nice to see so many students out here asking questions."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.