Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in this time will be my first time speaking about this issue publicly. It has been a very, very difficult week for all Members. It has been my most difficult to date as a Member of this Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Kakfwi and I had our differences right off the bat. There is no denying that. However, soon after he was elected Premier, I went to his office and I told him that I would work with him and this government and I have done that. Mr. Kakfwi and I share a lot of the same philosophies in life and towards government and program service delivery and political development in the Northwest Territories.
This is a process that started eight months ago, Mr. Speaker. As my colleague, Mr. Floyd Roland for Inuvik Boot Lake, had indicated, there is only one side of the story that seemed to have gone out. After the end of a very busy week, I had an opportunity to relax and view this and it came to me -- I do not have to make a decision here. The decision has been made for me. A friend of mine, a political leader in the Northwest Territories, called me up on Friday and I asked him, "What does it look like from the outside?" He said, "Everything was going fine and then all of a sudden things went chaotic."
If I can, I would like to explain the process the way I have seen it. The committee went through a process, we all know about that. They came in with a report. Jane Groenewegen reacted. She resigned. She did the honourable thing and restored a lot of credibility to this government by doing so and I congratulate her for doing that.
The next recommendation was dealing with Lee Selleck and the CBC, I believe. That went through, no problem. The other recommendation was dealing with Carol Roberts. That recommendation was followed through, no problem. The fourth recommendation we all agreed on, that the Premier should do something about his staff to restore dignity and integrity in his office. That recommendation parlayed into the discussions that we had in Caucus. There was a vote taken and we all agreed that the issue of confidence in the Premier should be put on the ballot during the Territorial Leadership Committee when we select a replacement for Mrs. Groenewegen. I for one am a possible candidate.
That was when the chaos started, Mr. Speaker. The Premier reacted very negatively to it. That afternoon he came in here and made an emergency statement without consulting any Member of this House, including his Cabinet Ministers, I believe. He then went out and made a press release giving himself a deadline of today. Then without coming to any Member to see if they supported him or not -- and for the record, Mr. Speaker, I was going to vote in confidence of Mr. Kakfwi as Premier, but I am not sure if I will do that now on that Territorial Leadership Committee ballot.
He went out and contacted our leaders, our constituents, our chambers of commerce, our chamber of mines, our business leaders, industry, small business throughout the whole North. The phone calls were coming in fast and furious. Press releases were being made by political organizations throughout the Territories. The next day I came here, as I read in the paper today and in Friday's paper, he had asked his Cabinet Ministers to put forward a motion in the House that we as Members of this House publicly affirm him and confirm him and show our confidence in him as Premier.
What he did is take himself out of the arena we know as consensus government in this Legislature, which we all were elected to by the people of the Northwest Territories. He has taken himself out and went out and rallied the support of the people who personally support him. Now the people are all in the gallery here. A form of pressure on us as Members and now we are asked to vote in public if we support and have confidence in the Premier.
As one of the candidates that could possibly go after a Cabinet position, I am asked publicly to tell the people of the Northwest Territories that I have confidence in the Premier when he has clearly demonstrated to me and to Members of this House that he does not have any trust in his Members, that he does not believe that we have confidence in him. He took this issue outside of this arena. In my humble opinion, that is a giant leap towards party politics. There are people in this House and people outside this House that want the Premier to be elected at large and he or she be able to select his or her own Cabinet from within this House.
If that is the direction that we as a society of the Northwest Territories want to go, then let us do it in an organized fashion. Let us not do it under the gun. Let us not do it in a reactionary mode. We are a consensus government for a reason. We do not have the population base, I believe, for party politics in the Northwest Territories. When we have elections every four years, there is significant participation by the people of the Northwest Territories and there is significant interest by people in our communities. In fact, there is so much interest there are families supporting two different candidates in an argumentative mode for weeks before and months after the election.
Can we afford as a society in the Northwest Territories to have party politics where party lines and party philosophies will have to be followed and adhered to, or preached in our communities on a daily basis? I do not think we could do that.
The reason why I believe the Northwest Territories is so progressive in a lot of ways, especially in aboriginal rights, aboriginal programs and services, as compared with the rest of the country, is because we are a consensus government that believes we have aboriginal rights because of the population base, because we have direct contact with our constituents and because we have an accountability system under consensus government that allows us to directly deal with the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the Minister of Transportation, it does not matter. Under party politics, we will not be able to do that.
To me, my vote is not in the confidence of the Premier anymore. It is the government system. I believe the government system of the Northwest Territories was put in jeopardy when the Premier, without consulting the Members of the Legislative Assembly or even Members of Cabinet, went outside and took it to the people of the Northwest Territories.
I cannot consciously vote in this matter where I am asked to vote publicly, even if it is not -- even if it is just for the Premier, if I have confidence in him or not. If I do it publicly then I believe myself, as a Member of this Legislative Assembly and the constituents I represent, would lose.
In the Northwest Territories, people depend, communities depend on capital projects. If we so blatantly disrespect or blatantly say we do not support the Premier and he gets back in then we, as Members of the Legislative Assembly who represent our constituents, their needs and wants, would be in danger of foul play.
That is what I was referring to in my Member's statement when I told my constituents that I will make a decision that is best for the governance of the Northwest Territories.
Consensus government has taken a blow, Mr. Speaker. I think by abstaining from this vote and not acknowledging it and following through with the process that we started off on, that we all agreed to in the House that we will follow, will restore that confidence in the governance system of the Northwest Territories.
I would dearly love the opportunity to make that vote on Wednesday, Mr. Speaker. Towards that end, I will be abstaining from this vote. If I vote either way, I am acknowledging that I want to affect the governance system of the Northwest Territories and I do not have a mandate. When I was elected to this House, I was not given a mandate to talk about party politics or even go as far as having the Premier be elected at large and having him select his own Cabinet. I will not do that, Mr. Speaker. My constituents have not asked me to do that. I refuse to do that.
I encourage my colleagues to abstain from this vote because of just that. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause