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Nokleby knocks over Scott in Great Slave

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Katrina Knokleby beat out her sole competitor Patrick Scott by 65 votes on the Oct. 1 election night. She said her first meeting will be with the YKDFN. Rajnesh Sharma/ NNSL photo

Newcomer Katrina Nokleby has won the wide-open electoral district of Great Slave.

Nokleby knocked-off candidate Patrick Scott with a count of 454 votes to 389.

"I'm feeling really good," Nokleby said.

"It was a tough battle. I've never done anything like this before. I was nervous coming into tonight but I was confident because I worked hard."

Nokleby says she ran her campaign on improving the economy and seeing to its improvement will be her first order of business.

She said one of her first meetings will be with the Yellowknives Dene First Nations chiefs.

"I made that promise to them while I was campaigning and I want to make sure we have strong relationships so I'm looking forward to doing that," she said.

Nokleby wanted to thank her campaign manager Chris Gillander and gave a shout out to her family, especially to her mother who is having health issues who she will be visiting before being sworn in.

Scott, who was in attendance at the Copper House restaurant to congratulate Nokleby, said he was "not happy" with the results.

"I'm not happy about it but that's the card that's been dealt," said Scott.

"She's got work to do and I hope she does it well."

Scott, 70, said this was his last try running in politics after three attempts.

Nokleby has previously claimed she was in support of sustainable exploration and an increase of Arctic infrastructure in order to boost the economy.

She is an engineer in Yellowknife with a specialization in environmental assessment and has been living in the North since 2006.

This is her first attempt at running for politics. MLAs will begin orientation on Oct. 8. Cabinet and the premier will be elected on Oct. 24.