Dennis Fraser Bevington (born March 27, 1953) is a Canadian politician from the

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. ...

, and was the

member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the riding of

from 2006 until 2015. Born in Fort Smith, he served as mayor from 1988 to 1997. During Bevington's term at the head of council, Fort Smith recognized the

Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...

and

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

languages, making the town officially quadrilingual. A businessman, Bevington has long been active on environmental issues. In the 2000 federal election he ran as the

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

candidate for

Western Arctic Northwest Territories (french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada. The electoral district covers the entire territory. This riding was created in 1962 from Mackenzie River ...

, but lost by 18% to incumbent

Ethel Blondin-Andrew Ethel Dorothy Blondin-Andrew (born 25 March 1951) is a Canadian politician, educator, and public servant. She became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada in 1988 when she became a member of Parliament for the di ...

. Bevington ran again in the 2004 election, losing to Blondin-Andrew by only 53 votes, one of the closest races of the election. Bevington succeeded in unseating Blondin-Andrew in the 2006 election, with a margin of 1,158 votes. On October 19, 2015, Bevington was defeated for re-election by Liberal candidate Michael McLeod. Bevington fought for years to have the name of the riding changed from Western Arctic to Northwest Territories. Since 2008, Bevington has tabled three

private member's bills A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in w ...

titled "An Act to change the name of the electoral district of Western Arctic", all dying on the order paper. The task was more difficult as the riding name had been specified directly in the ''Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act'', rather than in the representation orders governing other riding names. Bevington finally succeeded in having the name change incorporated into a bill that changed several other riding names in 2014.Parliament of Canada
"Northwest Territories (Northwest Territories) 2014-"
''History of Federal Ridings since 1867.'' Consulted 2014-08-27.

Electoral record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bevington, Dennis 1953 births Living people Mayors of places in the Northwest Territories Members of the House of Commons of Canada from the Northwest Territories New Democratic Party MPs People from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories 21st-century Canadian politicians