The Politics of Northwest Territories involves not only the governance of the Northwest Territories but also the social, economic and political issues specific to the

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. This includes matters relating to local governance and governance by the federal government of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the inclusion of the aboriginal population in territorial affairs, and the matter of official languages for the territory. Key to the politics and governance of the Northwest Territories are the limits on the jurisdiction of the territorial government. Territories of Canada have no

inherent jurisdiction Inherent jurisdiction is a doctrine of the English common law that a superior court has the jurisdiction to hear any matter that comes before it, unless a statute or rule limits that authority or grants exclusive jurisdiction to some other cou ...

and only have those powers delegated to them by the federal government. The devolution and delegation of power to the territory has always been a factor in the territory's politics. A hallmark of politics in the Northwest Territories is that it operates as under a “ consensus government” system. Candidates for election to the territorial legislature do not stand as members of a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

. While some candidates may express an affiliation or membership with a party, party membership is not recognized in the legislature. As a result, the

Members of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

select a Premier by way of a secret ballot, rather than on the basis of party affiliation (see Responsible government). Local governance has been a long-standing issue in the territory. This includes not only the loss of local government authority from the period from 1905 to 1951, when Ottawa asserted direct control over the governance of the territory, but also related matters of aboriginal self-governance and land claims. This latter issue lead, in part, to the division of the territory into the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Language has also been a long-standing issue in Northwest Territory politics. French became an official language, along with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, in 1877. This resulted in heated debates in the territorial assembly and the establishment of English as the only official language until pressure from the federal government in the 1980s lead to not only the inclusion of French as an official language, but also nine aboriginal languages.

References

External links

NWT Legislative AssemblyElections NWT
{{NWT History box History of the Northwest Territories

See also

References

External links