SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The co-founder of Discovery Mining Services and the son of city hockey legend Shorty Brown said he'll be challenging Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny for his seat at the legislative assembly in the fall.

Rod Brown - who was born and raised in Yellowknife and describes himself as a "private guy," said he expects some constituents to be surprised he's decided make the step into political life. Brown said he wants to give back and help shape the direction the territory is heading in the future.

"The North has been amazing to my family and done really well by me," said Brown. "I think it's a really great opportunity to work with people to try and shape the direction the North is going to go in. We're in some pretty critical times and I would like to think that my commitment to the North will definitely help out and get us going in the right direction."

Brown - an exploration geologist - began working for the Geological Survey of Canada in 1990. He founded Discovery Mining Services in 1992 with partner Juanita Rocher.

In an e-mailed response, Brown stated that challenges need to be addressed and he plans to take them on in his home riding of Range Lake.

"High cost of living, economic development, and creating a balanced economy" are the issues he plans to tackle, he stated.

"If I am elected I will embrace the opportunity to work with other MLAs, government agencies, NGOs, industry, the citizens ... to tackle these issues," he said.

Dolynny said, knowing Brown, he welcomes the competition and looks forward to campaigning against him.

"The more people who show interest ... democracy is stronger," he said. "I welcome Mr. Brown, I know him well, and I think he'd be a good person to campaign with."

Dolynny said four candidates competed for the Range Lake seat four years ago, and his closest competitor was Montessori Schools president David Wasylciw.

"He ran a very professional campaign," he said. "The debates were really good, a lot of issues emerged. I think the paper did a good job of engaging those issues and getting it out to the public."

He said he expects cost of living, energy issues, health and education to be among the hot-button topics this time around.

"There will be other issues that emerge," he said. "Right now, from what I see ... people are really concerned about being able to afford to live in the North and making the North their home."

Dolynny said Brown and other unconfirmed candidates will bring a sense of competition to the election process.

Wasylciw said he hasn't decided if he'll be running this year or which riding he'll contest. He said he enjoyed competing for the Range Lake seat last election.

"It was a good race," he said.

"It was an open riding. Sometimes you can have an incumbent and you'll have three or four people running against them. This was more like people running on their merits alone. It was my first time doing it, so I had a lot of fun with it."

While he hasn't decided, he said it's unlikely he'll run in Range Lake again because it isn't an open riding anymore.

Incumbents enjoy an advantage over their challengers because the system helps them to promote themselves early on, said Wasylciw.

The territorial election is Nov. 23.

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