The election fever is here. We just heard in the Sahtu region that Rocky Norwegian put his name forth, so we now can choose between Norman Yakeleya or Norwegian.

Time to look at your election wishlist. A few people were asked in the last edition of News/North, what are your issues? They came up with the same old things: homelessness, the need for midwifery, Centre Square Mall in Yellowknife is a sore sight, health, housing, the same old wishlist and complaints.

We need to wake up in the NWT. Nunavut and the Yukon are way ahead of us; those two territories are treated like provinces. Harper spends more time in those two territories and spends more money as well, and our own newspapers have more news about Nunavut and the Yukon, because they are aggressive and are doing a lot of business.

So in the NWT, we must elect the people who will be visible and fight on our behalf. In the Sahtu, as the only isolated region, we want to be a partner, To be equal, to enjoy life and take things for granted just like the other four regions, and that means to get us the hell out of isolation!

We must complete the Mackenzie Valley Highway to the Beaufort Delta from Fort Wrigley. We have put up with excuses since 1971 when they completed the road to Fort Simpson, and in 1977, they extended the road to Fort Wrigley. The feds were responsible for highways until 1990 - they transferred the responsibility for highways to the GNWT, but no funding!

It sure tells you a lot about the GNWT, eh?

They took over the responsibility, but didn't have the guts to demand the money to complete the highway from the feds. I wish we had stayed under rule by the federal government like they did for the first two years when they discovered that they had wandering nomads living in this bush wilderness.

The worst mistake they made 50 years ago was to create GNWT! We need strong fighters in the GNWT to stand up to the federal government. The GNWT does not stand up to the feds. The GNWT is only developed and concentrated along the Alberta and British Columbia borders.

Anyhow, this election is very important. The world is changing and whether we like it or not, the people are changing. We don't live in our own little world with our own language anymore. The world will revolve and be ruled by one race. That's what the bible says. Read your bible.

We must concentrate on our young generation, their future. The old ways are disappearing, you must plan for the future.

We in the Sahtu region, you may say, got a wake-up call with the 11 parcels of land within our Norman Wells and Tulita region that won bids from five of the biggest oil companies after a few years of no action in the region.

People are excited about the beginning of exploration - geo-seismic activities once more. Norman Wells Land Corp. and the Tulita Dene and Metis Land Corp. joined forces in the creation of Tulita Lands Corp. and the Tulita Benefits Corp. in taking advantage of all the opportunities in economic benefits, employment, etc. for our beneficiaries.

Aboriginals across Canada are realizing the benefits and opportunities are better than always throwing up roadblocks. Co-operation is better than conflict and I believe we in the Tulita district lands are open to work with the multi-nationals.

We just signed a benefits agreement with Husky Oil - I'm sure it will be the beginning of a great relationship.