Western Arctic

Western Arctic

Northwest Territories electoral district
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	Dennis Bevington NDP
District created	1976
First contested	1979
Last contested	2008
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2006)	41,464
Electors (2011)	27,886
Area (km²)	1,346,106
Pop. density (per km²)	0.03
Census divisions	Inuvik Region, Fort Smith Region
Census subdivisions	Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Smith, Behchokò, Fort Simpson, Tuktoyaktuk, Fort McPherson, Norman Wells, Fort Providence

Western Arctic is a federal electoral district and senate division in Northwest Territories, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979.

It is the only current electoral district of the territory and is represented in parliament by Dennis Bevington (New Democratic Party) in the 40th Canadian Parliament.

Demographics

Population, 2006	41,464
Electors	28,792
Area (km²)	1,346,106
Population density (people per km²)	0.03

Geography

The district is coterminous with the Northwest Territories.

Federal riding associations

Riding associations are the local branches of the national political parties:

Party		Association Name	CEO	HQ Address	HQ City
	Conservative Party of Canada	Western Arctic Conservative Association	Bill Aho	5523 44th Street	Yellowknife
	Green Party of Canada	Green Party of Canada — Western Arctic	Jessica Gamble	15 Gitzel Street	Yellowknife
	Liberal Party of Canada	Western Arctic Federal Liberal Association	Peter Guther	PO BOX 965	Yellowknife
	New Democratic Party	Western Arctic Federal NDP Riding Association	Mark Heyck	PO BOX 2185	Yellowknife

History

The electoral district was created in 1976 from the electoral district of Northwest Territories (1962 - 1976). When Nunavut separated from the NWT in 1999, the boundaries of the riding of Western Arctic were made coterminous with the new boundaries of the NWT, with Nunavut being represented by the riding of Nunavut, formerly Nunatsiaq, which had represented the eastern half of the former NWT.

Unlike the other two territories, each of which likewise constitutes one riding, the riding of Western Arctic does not have the same name as its territory. In 2008, current MP Dennis Bevington introduced a private member's bill to rename the riding Northwest Territories. Such renaming bills are a routine procedure.

Members of Parliament

The riding's first MP was Progressive Conservative MP Dave Nickerson, who was first elected in 1979 and re-elected twice. In the 1988 election, Nickerson was defeated by Liberal Ethel Blondin-Andrew who went on to serve as the riding's MP for eighteen years, including two years as Minister of State for Northern Development. In 2006, Blondin-Andrew was defeated by New Democrat Dennis Bevington. The earlier riding of Northwest Territories had been represented by New Democrat Wally Firth from 1972 to 1979.

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Northwest Territories prior to 1976
31st	1979–1980		Dave Nickerson	Progressive Conservative
32nd	1980–1984
33rd	1984–1988
34th	1988–1993		Ethel Blondin-Andrew	Liberal
35th	1993–1997
36th	1997–2000
37th	2000–2004
38th	2004–2006
39th	2006–2008		Dennis Bevington	New Democratic
40th	2008–2011
41st	2011–present

Election results

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democrat	Dennis Bevington	7,140	45.80	+4.36
	Conservative	Sandy Lee	5,001	32.10	-5.51
	Liberal	Joseph Handley	2,872	18.40	+4.82
	Green	Eli Purchase	447	3.10	-2.39
	Animal Alliance	Bonnie Dawson	87	0.60	N/A
Total valid votes			15,577	100.00
Total rejected ballots			78	0.50	+0.09
Turnout			15,655	55.43	+7.72
Eligible voters			28,244

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democrat	Dennis Bevington	5,669	41.44	-0.99	$39,961
	Conservative	Brendan Bell	5,146	37.62	+17.14	$84,329
	Liberal	Gabrielle Mackenzie-Scott	1,858	13.58	-21.7	$37,884
	Green	Sam Gamble	752	5.49	+3.65	$9,010
	First Peoples	Noeline Villebrun	252	1.84	+1.87	-
Total valid votes			13,677	100.00
Total rejected ballots			56	0.41
Turnout			13,733	47.71
Eligible voters			28,787
	New Democratic Party hold		Swing	-9.1

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democrat	Dennis Bevington	6,801	42.67	+3.62	$40,703
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin-Andrew	5,643	35.40	-4.04
	Conservative	Richard Edjericon	3,200	20.08	+2.92
	Green	Alexandre Beaudin	296	1.85	-2.47
Total valid votes			15,940	100.00
Total rejected ballots
Turnout
	New Democratic Party gain from Liberal		Swing	+3.83

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin-Andrew	5,317	39.44	-6.15	$58,782
	New Democrat	Dennis Bevington	5,264	39.05	+12.34	$39,504
	Conservative	Sean Mandeville	2,314	17.16	-10.52	$16,863
	Green	Chris O'Brien	583	4.32		$2,754
Total valid votes			13,478	100.00
Total rejected ballots			69	0.51
Turnout			13,547	47.33

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin-Andrew	5,855	45.59	+3.96	$56,498
	New Democrat	Dennis Bevington	3,430	26.71	+7.42	$27,323
	Canadian Alliance	Fred Turner	2,273	17.70	+2.99	$15,406
	Progressive Conservative	Bruce McLaughlin	1,687	9.98	-2.64	$8,374
Total valid votes			12,840	100.00
Total rejected ballots			72	0.56
Turnout			12,912	52.24

Canadian federal election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin-Andrew	5,564	41.63	-20.84	$56,834
	New Democrat	Mary Beth Levan	2,579	19.29	+12.98	$22,393
	Reform	Mike Watt	1,966	14.71	+0.62	$4,546
	Progressive Conservative	Bob Dowdall	1,687	12.62	-0.71	$16,020
	Independent	Wally Firth	1,567	11.72		$8,857
Total valid votes			13,363	100.00
Total rejected ballots			94	0.70
Turnout			13,457	58.37

Canadian federal election, 1993
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin-Andrew	8,867	62.47	+20.10
	Reform	Mansell Grey	2,000	14.09
	Progressive Conservative	Martin Hanly	1,892	13.33	-15.29
	New Democrat	Bill Schram	896	6.31	-18.78
	Green	Chris O'Brien	325	2.29
	Natural Law	Lynn Taylor	213	1.50
Total valid votes			14,193	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1988
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ethel Blondin	5,415	42.37	+16.52
	Progressive Conservative	Dave Nickerson	3,657	28.62	-17.50
	New Democrat	Wayne Cahill	3,207	25.10	-2.93
	Independent	Cece McCauley	331	2.59
	Independent	Ernie Lennie	169	1.32
Total valid votes			12,779	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1984
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Dave Nickerson	5,822	46.12	+12.31
	New Democrat	Bertha Allen	3,538	28.03	-5.60
	Liberal	Lynda Sorenson	3,264	25.86	-6.71
Total valid votes			12,624	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1980
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Dave Nickerson	3,556	33.81	-1.35
	New Democrat	Wally Firth	3,537	33.63	+4.30
	Liberal	Gary Boyd	3,425	32.56	-0.59
Total valid votes			10,518	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1979
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Dave Nickerson	4,058	35.16
	Liberal	David Searle	3,827	33.15
	New Democrat	Georges Erasmus	3,385	29.33
	Independent	Edward McRae	273	2.37
Total valid votes			11,543	100.00

See also

• List of Canadian federal electoral districts
• Past Canadian electoral districts

External links

• Riding history for Western Arctic (1976– ) from the Library of Parliament
• Expenditures - 2004
• Expenditures – 2000
• Expenditures – 1997