Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories federal riding encompasses the entirety of Canada's second-largest territory, spanning over 1.1 million square kilometres from the 60th parallel to the Arctic Ocean. With a population of roughly 44,000 spread across 33 communities, the territory's largest centre is Yellowknife, home to nearly half of all residents. The riding stretches from the Mackenzie Delta town of Inuvik in the west to isolated communities along the Arctic coast and the boreal settlements of the Deh Cho and South Slave regions.

Candidates

Michael McLeod (Liberal) — Born and raised in Fort Providence, McLeod earned a diploma in Management Studies from Arctic College and built a career as a self-employed contractor before serving as a Tourism Development Officer for the territorial government. He was elected to the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in 1999, serving until 2011, and had also served as Mayor of Fort Providence, President of his Métis Local, and Vice-President of the Deh Cho Regional Council.

Dennis Bevington (NDP) — The incumbent MP, Bevington was first elected to the House of Commons in 2006 after narrowly losing the 2004 race by just 53 votes. Born in Fort Smith, he served as that town's mayor from 1988 to 1997, during which time Fort Smith declared four official languages by recognizing Chipewyan and Cree alongside English and French. Bevington was a longtime advocate on northern cost-of-living issues and a prominent critic of the federal Nutrition North program.

Floyd Roland (Conservative) — A former premier of the Northwest Territories, Roland served in the territorial legislature for 16 years representing Inuvik Boot Lake before becoming premier in 2007. Trained as an auto mechanic at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, he returned to Inuvik to work and entered politics as a town councillor in the early 1990s. Roland was serving as Mayor of Inuvik when he resigned to seek the Conservative nomination.

John Moore (Green Party) — Moore served as executive director of the Inuvik Youth Centre and was also a volunteer firefighter. A student at St. Francis Xavier University, he had arrived in Inuvik several months before the campaign to work while completing his final course through distance learning.

About the Riding

The Northwest Territories economy in 2015 was heavily shaped by diamond mining, with the Diavik and Ekati mines operating as major employers and economic drivers, though the Snap Lake mine was nearing closure by year's end. Government employment represented the territory's other economic pillar, with the territorial and federal governments together accounting for thousands of jobs concentrated in Yellowknife.

The riding's 33 communities include regional centres such as Inuvik, Hay River, and Fort Smith, along with smaller predominantly Indigenous settlements accessible only by air or seasonal ice roads. Roughly half the territory's population identifies as Indigenous, including Dene, Inuvialuit, and Métis peoples. Eleven official languages are recognized in the territory, including Chipewyan, Tłı̨chǫ, South Slavey, and North Slavey alongside English and French.

Key election issues included the high cost of living in remote northern communities, the adequacy of the Nutrition North food subsidy program, housing shortages, and the economic transition facing resource-dependent communities. The territory had recently completed a landmark devolution agreement with the federal government in 2014, giving it province-like powers over land, water, and natural resource management. Infrastructure investment, particularly road connections to isolated communities, and environmental stewardship of the Mackenzie Valley remained persistent concerns for northern residents.