NWT Cabinet member Stephen Kakfwi has noted that "The Northwest Territories is not a name, rather it is a direction -- a geographic label, in relation to Ottawa." And ya know, he's right! "We owe it to ourselves," Kakfwi continued, "to move on and accept that change must come. We can no longer regard ourselves as a child of Ottawa, a territory."
The problem is that no one has come up with a viable contender to 'Northwest Territories'... Well, we have a suggestion as to where you can park your vote for the time being -- name the new territory Bob.
9. Millions of parents -- both aboriginal and non-aboriginal -- can't be wrong! Robert/Bob has impeccable WASP origins, yet it has been chosen by many aboriginal parents as well.
8. 'Bob says...' sounds much better than 'The Government of the Northwest Territories says...' or 'The GNWT says...'
7. Politicians could take junkets to Bob's twinned jurisdictions of Bobcaygeon and Zimbobwe.
6. 'Kurszewski-stan' is too long...
5. Lots of neat official stuff would be immediately available to the new government -- the official sport could be bobsledding, the official hairdo could be 'the Bob,' the RCMP could be renamed 'Bobbies,' etc.
4. Bob is dyslexic-friendly.
3. Allows parents to show pride in their territory by naming their children 'Jim Bob,' 'Billy Bob,' etc.
2. Bob sounds the same in each of the official languages of the residual Northwest Territories -- Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey. (Click on the names of the languages to hear 'Bob' spoken in that language. NOTE: these are .aiff sound files which may require a helper application in addition to your web browser.)
1. The Bob & Doug Mackenzie River flows through it.
If you have other suggestions for our list of why people should Vote for Bob, please e-mail us!
I'll send an e-mail to new_name@gov.nt.ca which says "I suggest that the residual Northwest Territories should be named Bob."
Jane Groenewegen, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Hay River, chairs the Naming the Western Territory Sub-Committee tasked with coming up with a new name for the residual territory. People -- and this includes YOU, even if you don't live in the NWT -- may submit suggestions by phone, fax, letter and e-mail. The top 5 names submitted to the sub-committee will, they assure us, be placed on the plebisite ballot.
We feel that this is a pretty silly way to name a political jurisdiction, unlikely to recommend a name other than 'Northwest Territories', and (fortunately!) wide open to abuse...
As of June 24, the Naming the Western Territory Sub-Committee had received 492 suggestions. 455 creative souls had suggested 'Northwest Territories,' and its closest competitor had been suggested just 5 times.
We can do better -- we can Vote for Bob!
News/North reports that:
The Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographic Names, mandated to investigate and make recommendations on geographic names in Canada, has a list of 14 principles which must be followed.We believe that Bob meets all these principles and criteria!It suggests a name already in public use, potentially using the name of pioneers, war casualties or historical events.
The Legislative Assembly has already said it would eliminate names that were too long, were difficult to pronounce, were obscene or were discriminatory on the basis of race, sex or ethnicity.
(quotes from the article 'Name game: Four weeks left till polls close on suggested names -- 'NWT' winning by a landslide', July 1, 1996)
I'll send an e-mail to new_name@gov.nt.ca which says "I suggest that the residual Northwest Territories should be named Bob."