Meet Yanik D'Aigle, Conservative candidate for the Northwest Territories
D'Aigle would be first Conservative MP for the N.W.T. since 1988
This is the third in a series of profiles of the Northwest Territories' federal election candidates. Read our profile on NDP candidate Mary Beckett, Liberal candidate Michael McLeod, Green candidate Paul Falvo, and People's Party candidate Luke Quinlan.
After 30 years of electoral failure, it's probably time to try something different.
Enter Yanik D'Aigle, the Conservative Party's latest answer to the conundrum of electing a representative to the Northwest Territories' lone seat.
"I've always been a little bit different," said D'Aigle. "Being different can oftentimes be a good thing. How do you get noticed? How do you stand out in the crowd?"
D'Aigle is known locally as the "banker with the bowtie" — not a bad moniker for a Conservative candidate in a year where the party is campaigning on a return to fiscal discipline.
"We all want to be able to support programs and help our communities, but we also have to pay for the bills," said D'Aigle. "We can't spend frivolously."
He's the proud owner of "over 50" bowties, including one polka-dotted with the Conservative Party logo.
"Not everybody remembers my name, but they remember the bowtie," he said. "It builds partnerships, it builds friendships, and that's part of what I want to be able to do in politics."
Conservatives, once longshots, have good odds
Historically, federal elections have produced two-way races between Liberal and NDP candidates in the N.W.T.
A Conservative hasn't represented the territory since four-term MP Dave Nickerson was defeated in the 1988 general election.
But this year, the Conservatives are in a four-way race in 338Canada's poll projections. Liberal incumbent Michael McLeod, the NDP's Mary Beckett and Green Party hopeful Paul Falvo are all within the eight per-cent margin of error.
That's promising for D'Aigle, who hopes voters will choose something different this time.
"For me it's about not having the status quo," he said. "People want change. We just had a territorial election and we saw a bunch of fresh new faces, a bunch of fresh new ideas that are being brought forward, and I want to be able to be part of that."
'Economic prosperity for Indigenous communities'
For 13 years, D'Aigle has worked for the Royal Bank of Canada. For the past six, he's worked in their Yellowknife branch.
D'Aigle trades on his financial expertise when making his case to voters. He speaks about "strategic investments" in the economy, and says unresolved land claims create "investor uncertainty."
In interviews, D'Aigle has also tried to position the Conservative Party as the natural friend to Indigenous voters.
On CBC's The Trailbreaker, D'Aigle credited the Harper government for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created as the result of a court settlement in 2008.
"It was prime minister Stephen Harper who… apologized, and began that process to make sure that the steps for truth and reconciliation began," he said.
He also praised past Conservative governments for beginning the land claim process in the 1980s, and for signing more agreements-in-principle than the Liberal government.
"Conservatives have always wanted to be able to provide economic benefit to our Indigenous communities, through land claims," he said. "Economic prosperity for Indigenous communities is the first step to ensure that we do have reconciliation."
D'Aigle raised the possibility of opening final agreements to periodic renegotiation — a sticking point in past negotiations.
"There's nothing to stop [it]," he said. "We do it in business, we do it in our day-to-day lives."
Indigenous leaders have expressed wariness about the benefits of a change in government for the land claims process, and say the territorial government is largely responsible for delays under Trudeau.
"I can't speak on behalf of all the negotiators," said D'Aigle, in response. "What I do know is that we as a Conservative government want to have these resolved."
D'Aigle also said he has "serious concerns" about integrating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Canadian law.
"It's a long, long laundry list of items it could be impacting," he said. "To ensure that … it is done effectively and properly, without jumping too quickly … I think is prudent."
'It's for them to decide'
The Conservatives are the only party to mention resource royalty formulas in their platform, released last Friday. D'Aigle has made this a key part of his pitch to voters.
"Our commitment is actually to have 100 per cent of resource [royalties] remain in the North," he said. "We know that we're having an economic downturn in the territories. We want to make sure that we support ... communities"
"Whether it's infrastructure, whether it's for housing, whether it's for lowering the cost of food, whatever it is they are looking for them to do," he said, "it's for them to decide."
D'Aigle also said his party would lift the moratorium on Arctic drilling established by the Trudeau government in 2016.
"At the same time, it doesn't mean we're going to go ahead and drill," he said.
In interviews, D'Aigle has framed the moratorium as an example of the Liberal government's failure to consult — with the territory as much as with Indigenous leadership.
"It was very much apparent to me during my visit to the Beaufort that they are the ones that want to manage the land," he said. "I trust in their wisdom and their confidence."
D'Aigle must improve on 2015 results
To win, D'Aigle has a long way to climb from his party's 2015 results, when former premier Floyd Roland failed to top 30 per cent of the vote everywhere but Norman Wells.
If elected, D'Aigle said, he'd "make a little bit of noise in parliament like it's never been done before."
And, if it were up to him, he'd revolutionize Parliament's taste in fashion as well.
"Hopefully, one day we can have a bowtie wave in Ottawa," he said.
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With files from Hilary Bird and Loren McGinnis