-=> Quoting Roger Nelson to Gord Hannah <=-

 RN> Try Glucosamine Sulphate.

I have and some people swear by it but I found Soma Life more
effective.

In other news today Yellowknife celebrated 40 years of being a
capital city....

Jake Ootes
Special to Northern News Services

The title was bestowed on Yellowknife some months previous by Arthur
Laing, minister of Northern Affairs, but Sept. 18, 1967 was the real
historic day for both Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.

John Parker, the newly appointed deputy commissioner, hammered a
small wooden sign - one foot by five feet, with the words
"Government of the Northwest Territories" onto the side of the
slanting, clapboard building.

Yellowknifers came out to greet the newcomers who were going to
transform the town of 4,500 hardy souls into the NWT capital.

That day, two DC-7 charter aircraft arrived at the Yellowknife
airport, one with 75 passengers (30 employees and their families)
and the other loaded with files and office furniture and all manner
of paper and paper clips.

A crowd of a thousand Yellowknifers welcomed the newcomers who were
led by Stuart Hodgson, the NWT commissioner, a flamboyant former
labour union leader. Today, the commissioner's role is strictly
ceremonial but in those days the commissioner was all-powerful and
Hodgson made the most of his authority. He chaired the Territorial
Council (forerunner of the legislative assembly), introduced the
legislation, controlled the budget ($9 million), doled out the money
and hired and fired the employees. He was informally referred to as
a benevolent dictator.

Yellowknife of 1967 was a town of 4,500 people, many of whom were
employed by the two gold mines in town - Giant and Con. The town had
the only paved street in the Northwest Territories - a stretch of
six blocks along Franklin Avenue.

A new subdivision of employee houses was under construction but
nowhere near finished and so the employees were billeted in the
Yellowknife Inn and the Gold Range Hotel.

A condemned two-storey schoolhouse served as office space with the
commissioner accommodated in the school's kitchen, a far cry from
the giant oak-paneled office afforded the commissioner in Ottawa.
The legal advisor's office was situated in the bar area of the
curling rink.

The local paper, News of the North, the only newspaper in 1,300,000
square miles, was without its editor. Hodgson had hired E.R. (Ted)
Horton as his director of information and had urged me to publish
the newspaper for two editions.

It really wasn't much of a newspaper - located in a ramshackle
building filled with great machines no longer in working order. The
press itself was a vintage piece of steel operated by a cantankerous
printer who warmed up his day by smearing printer's ink all over his
face, just to get into the mood. The clutter and mess of old
newspapers and discarded ink cans were everywhere.

In my first hour on the job the pressman yelled for me to watch the
press as he walked out the back door. The press was on a slant and
required ink to be constantly scooped to the higher side. Suddenly,
I became aware of the subtle change in the pitch of the floor, which
was moving upward. The pressman returned, gave the machine a
professional glance and said: "Have to jack the building up from
time to time - permafrost."

A half-page advertisement from the Yellowknife town office blared:
"Keep the hell off the road at fires. Leave firefighting to the
people paid to do it and mind your own business." It was a different
kind of language all right and a different way of doing things.

Hodgson dropped in, looked around with satisfaction, oblivious of
the mess and announced that some people from The New York Times were
visiting next week and they would love to see how a small town
newspaper operated. "You boys might not realize it but I see a time
when this newspaper, like the Northwest Territories, will be holding
its own with the very best."

Stuart Hodgson's words were prophetic. Not only has the newspaper
thrived, but Yellowknife has become one of Canada's modern, vibrant
capital cities and the Northwest Territories has over the last 40
years become an influential part of the Canadian mainstream.

- Jake Ootes had many careers in the North - magazine publisher,
civil servant, MLA and GNWT cabinet minister. He is presently living
in British Columbia, tending to his vineyard.



Cheers

YK Jim


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