Yellowknife’s mayor, Rebecca Alty, has become the NWT’s next MP. Could she go one step further and join a Mark Carney cabinet?
Having a prime minister born in the Northwest Territories, like Carney, is already unprecedented. It’s conceivable that the territorial connection might help him look kindly on Alty for a ministerial position.
Despite there having been 30 northern affairs ministers appointed since the position was created, not one was actually from the North.
(While the NWT’s Ethel Blondin-Andrew was a minister of state for northern development from 2004 to 2006, the federal minister of Indian affairs and northern development throughout that time was Andy Scott.)
Michael McLeod repeatedly stated his ambition to join cabinet but was overlooked.
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His elected successor as Liberal MP for the territory, Alty, said on Monday she hadn’t “thought that far ahead … but that’ll be the next thing I put my mind to.”
“It did come up a bit on the campaign trail. People were like, ‘I’d want you on cabinet so that you can push hard.’ So yeah, it would definitely be something that I’d consider, because you then are at the table and are able to raise the issues more,” said Alty.
“The drawback is, of course, that you’re not in the constituency as much.”
Garett Cochrane, a Yellowknife city councillor who is also part of the territory’s Liberal organization, said joining cabinet was “one of the most important things any MP can do within the lifespan of their career.”
“Because of the unique aspect of our region, with our population size, it becomes all the more important that we are sitting around the most important decision-making table in the country,” Cochrane said.
Emily Blake contributed reporting.
