Get to know Yellowknife’s new mayor in eight minutes

Ben Hendriksen is Yellowknife’s new mayor after an unusual process in which just five people could vote. He only wants the job for 18 months.

After being appointed by five of his fellow councillors on Monday, Hendriksen says he’ll do what he can to steer the ship until the next municipal election in the fall of 2026 – then someone else can take over.

“We have a lot we need to get done,” Hendriksen told Mornings at the Cabin on Tuesday.

“I have skills that our council needs right now in order to work with city admin, specifically our new-ish city manager who has been hitting the ground running, to make progress on these issues we have on our work plan. That’s why I went for this.”

Hendriksen, Stacie Arden Smith and Garett Cochrane all sought the role, leaving other five council members to vote. They unanimously selected him.

Afterward, Arden Smith told CKLB she believed “there are going to be a lot of upset Indigenous groups regarding this” as both Arden Smith and Cochrane are Indigenous, whereas Hendriksen is not. Hendriksen told the same broadcaster he and council are “committed” to working with Indigenous governments and peoples.

More: Ben Hendriksen’s 2022 election interview

“My first email after leaving Council today was to Chief Betsina and Chief Sangris of the YKDFN,” Hendriksen wrote on Facebook after being appointed mayor – a message the Yellowknives Dene First Nation subsequently shared through its own channels.

“Our two Councils had a productive meeting last week and we all spoke about the importance of keeping that relationship strong. All three of us hope and plan to meet together soon,” Hendriksen added.

Cochrane, in an online statement of his own, said Hendriksen was “an ideal public servant with many years in advocacy and policy work but most importantly he is a genuinely great human being. He will do this Council and our community proud.”

Friskily conservative

Hendriksen is from Ontario’s Niagara region and first moved to Yellowknife in 2011. He then spent time in Ireland while his wife went back to school. They returned to the NWT capital in 2020.

Listen to Mornings at the Cabin’s Jesse Wheeler, Ollie Williams and Shannon Moore interview him for an eight-minute guide to who he is and what he will stand for as the city’s mayor for a year and a half.

In the middle of that interview, through a slip of the tongue, he inadvertently labelled himself “friskily conservative.”

“I have joined and unjoined every single political party now at different points in my life,” he said.

“I have voted on issues that somebody would say is a very conservative issue, and then the next issue, they’ll say I’m a hippie and a progressive.”

Since becoming a councillor, he has been particularly associated with active transportation – attempting to improve the city’s infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians.

“I am the guy who rides a bike and doesn’t own a vehicle. That would be the thing that people would probably say I’m a hippie on,” he said.

“But I would argue that’s a pretty conservative thing … my wife, years ago, did up the spreadsheet showing me how much money I’d save, and that’s why I ride my bike.”

A mayoral vacancy was created when Rebecca Alty, the city’s mayor since 2018, ran successfully as the NWT’s Liberal candidate in last month’s federal election.

Hendriksen said that won’t be for him. At most, he may seek re-election as a councillor in 2026.

“I don’t have any bigger political ambitions,” he said on Tuesday.

“I won’t bring the baby-kissing sort of excitement, but I bring the pragmatic sort of nuts-and-bolts stuff that I want to focus on.”