Column: An independent N.W.T candidate

There's an independent entry into the race for the Western Arctic parliamentary seat cushion: Jan van der Veen.

Reported by the CBC to be an economist, van der Veen says he's been in and out of the Northwest Territories for the past 16 years. His credentials include having run twice for the old Reform party in my home province of Ontario. While a search of the Northern News Services online archive revealed nothing, I seem to remember a letter he wrote concerning what he saw as the racism of certain aboriginal self-government agreements, though let it be said that I could be wrong.

Van der Veen currently resides in Fort Simpson, a settlement of about 1,100 people reached by ignoring the turnoff to Yellowknife and continuing more than 200 kilometres down the road. I became aware of his candidacy yesterday morning. The messenger; a full-colour, glossy flyer asking me to protect Canada's Arctic by voting for Jan van der Veen. None of the other candidates had reached into my mailbox, so I gave the material some time. While the graphics were tackily eye catching, the messages were a bit muddled.

Phrases such as "personal ownership options for land claims," and "rights and governance of independent race," said nothing to me. But it's clear the man is not happy with the way issues such as aboriginal land claims and self government are being handled by our two levels of government.

A reliable source says van der Veen is not even close to being a wingnut. But someone who I'm assuming is non-aboriginal and basing his campaign around reforming issues involving aboriginal people had better tread carefully.

So we've got ourselves a five-way race for the title of King or Queen of the Arctic. Only two candidates have a realistic shot at winning and van der Veen doesn't appear to be one of them.

But who cares? More competition should make for a more dynamic race.

And considering how distant federal ideas and messages seem from the North, the NWT seems fertile soil in which to grow an independent MP. But an on-again, off-again Northerner likely has as much chance of taking root as green beans growing on the Nunavut tundra.