Our new crop of MLAs didn’t let the dust settle after the territorial election before they started jostling for position on who would be premier.
Some have been up front about their desire to be premier, while others are being sneakier about it. Ultimately, it will be up to our 19 newly-elected MLAs to decide who is best to lead us, and they will do so by secret ballot in the days ahead.
Us regular folks have no say in who will be our next premier. Nonetheless, I think it is important to tell our MLAs what we are looking for in a leader with the hope that their votes will reflect our interests.
From my perspective, I am looking for someone who is a good spokesperson. While our last few premiers had their talents, none of them was particularly good in front of a microphone. I think a premier needs to be the face and voice of our government. They should cheerlead when the going is good, and they should be able to face the music with courage when the going gets tough.
During the height of the pandemic, I was super jealous of Nunavut. Their then-premier, Joe Savikataaq, was on the radio daily, speaking to his people with words of encouragement and unity. He didn’t have any expertise in managing a public health crisis, but he owned the role of keeping people’s spirits up. This is a key role of a premier — to inspire and unite — and we should expect no less.
A premier should be someone with a sense of vision. We’ve had recent premiers whose strength was managing the GNWT bureaucracy, and this is an important talent to be sure. But I find I am craving someone with more vision for where we should be going as a territory. This is particularly important now, as we move into a new phase of the NWT with the diamond mines winding down and Indigenous peoples increasingly determining their own future. Change is coming.
What is the future we are trying to achieve? How should we work together as a diversity of peoples to get there? What are our common values and dreams? A premier should have a clear answers to such questions.
While it is important for a premier to have a strong vision, it is just as critical to have the skill and dedication to deliver on it. In the NWT, this means being an excellent consensus builder. A premier should be committed to working with all MLAs better than has been the case in the recent past. This means making sure the legislative assembly conducts its business with less secrecy and more collaboration.
Maybe even more importantly, a premier must be able to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships with the Indigenous governments of the NWT. All these have increasing responsibility and jurisdiction. A premier needs to be trusted by Indigenous leaders and should work towards sharing power with First Nation, Metis, and Inuvialuit governments in a way that is beneficial to all the people of the NWT.
I don’t know if any of our candidates for premier have the skill set I’ve outlined above, but I sure hope some of them do. I don’t think it is too much to ask. We deserve as much.