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NWT election deadline passes: 59 to stand, 1 acclaimed

Next month’s Northwest Territories election will see 59 candidates contest 18 electoral districts, while Jackson Lafferty has been acclaimed in Monfwi.

Lafferty, the territory’s education minister, was the sole candidate to stand in the district and will be returned to the legislature unopposed.

Nominations closed at 2pm on Friday and a 5pm deadline for withdrawals passed without event. Ten of the candidates, in nine districts, are female.

Yellowknife’s seven ridings attracted 22 candidates, while Hay River North and Hay River South will each be contested by three people.

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Embattled domestic violence convict Michael Nadli, the story of the election so far, successfully submitted his papers just minutes before the deadline.

Nadli, the former Deh Cho MLA, announced his intention to stand for re-election on Tuesday. The 51-year-old was released from jail earlier this month, having served roughly a week of a 45-day sentence for attacking his spouse in April.

Since announcing his planned bid to win back his seat in the legislature, Nadli has endured a wave of criticism for his decision to seek re-election.

He will face competition from Ronald Bonnetrouge, Lyle Fabian and Gregory Nyuli.

Read: MLA convicted of assault will run again after early release

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Among Yellowknife districts, Frame Lake – vacated by Wendy Bisaro, who has chosen not to stand again after eight years – will be particularly hotly contested. The four candidates are Roy Erasmus, Jan Fullerton, Kevin O’Reilly and David Wasylciw.

Yellowknife North, a newly formed district with no incumbent, attracted five interested parties: Edwin Castillo, Sean Erasmus, Ben Nind (previously constituency assistant to former NWT MP Dennis Bevington), and former city councillors Cory Vanthuyne and Dan Wong.

Premier Bob McLeod has competition from Nigit’stil Norbert and Samuel Roland in Yellowknife South.

In Hay River North, incumbent Robert Bouchard faces Karen Felker and RJ Simpson. Jane Groenewegen, standing for re-election in Hay River South, is up against Wally Schumann and Brian Willows.

In full: List of candidates on Elections NWT website

Moose FM is approaching all candidates in Yellowknife and Hay River for full interviews outlining where they stand on big issues, the solutions they advocate, and why they believe you should vote for them. We’ll bring those to you as soon as we have them in the weeks prior to election day, November 23.

This is the largest field of entrants in the NWT since 1999, when 65 people stood in the first election using new boundaries when Nunavut became a separate entity. The last election, in 2011, was contested by 47 people. There were 55 candidates in 2007 and 59 in 2003.

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