The 2019 Northwest Territories general election was held on October 1, 2019. Nineteen members were elected to the

Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories (with Northwest hyphenated as North-West until 1906), is the legislature and the seat of government of Northwest Territories in Canada. It is a uni ...

Election

On September 6, 2019, Premier Bob McLeod announced that he would not seek re-election. Four other incumbents announced they would not seek re-election, including three of seven cabinet ministers — Health Minister Glen Abernethy, Housing Minister Alfred Moses, and Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod. Not counting the three acclaimed MLAs (RJ Simpson, Frederick Blake Jr, and Jackson Lafferty), only four incumbent members out of 11 running won reelection: Kevin O'Reilly, Julie Green, Shane Thompson, and Caroline Cochrane. Cochrane was the only cabinet minister from the 18th Assembly to return to the legislature. Three ridings, including Cochrane's, were subject to automatic

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

s due to the narrow margins of victory; however, all of the recounts upheld the original results. The election represented a historic breakthrough for women in Northwest Territories politics. The territory had just two female MLAs in the previous assembly, ranking last among all of Canada's elected legislatures for female representation; in the 2019 election, however, the territory elected nine women, representing nearly half of the 19-seat legislature— the highest percentage of female representation in any Canadian legislature.

New premier and cabinet

Given that the territory operates on a consensus government system, MLAs elected on October 1 chose the new premier in the first session of the 19th Assembly. Four MLAs —

Jackson Lafferty Jackson Lafferty (born October 9, 1969) is a Canadian territorial level politician. Early life Lafferty attended High School in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He received his post secondary education at Red Deer College and is currently enro ...

, R. J. Simpson,

Caroline Cochrane Caroline Cochrane (born December 5, 1960) is a Canadian politician, who is the 13th and current premier of the Northwest Territories. She is one of three currently serving female premiers in Canada and the second female premier of the Northwest ...

and Frieda Martselos — indicated that they would stand for the premiership; Cochrane was selected as the premier on October 24. Simpson, Paulie Chinna,

Katrina Nokleby Katrina Nokleby is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 2019 election. She represents the electoral district of Great Slave Great Slave is a territorial electoral district for ...

, Diane Thom,

Shane Thompson Shane Thompson is a Canadian politician, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for the district of Nahendeh Nahendeh

and

Caroline Wawzonek Caroline Wawzonek is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 2019 election. She represents the electoral district of Yellowknife South, and was elected to Premier Caroline Cochrane ...

were selected as the cabinet members in the same session of the legislature.Ollie Williams
"Here's who will be in Caroline Cochrane's NWT cabinet"
Cabin Radio, October 24, 2019.

Results

The Legislative Assembly is run on a consensus government system, in which all MLAs sit as independents and are not organized into political parties. Note, accordingly, that colours in the following charts are used solely to indicate candidate status, not political party affiliations.

Statistics

Candidates

References

External links

Elections NWT
{{Canelections Elections in the Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

October 2019 events in Canada 2019 in the Northwest Territories