Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
| Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Assemblée législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest |
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|---|---|
| 18th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly | |
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| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | Legislative Assembly |
| Leadership | |
|
Jackson Lafferty
Since November 2015 |
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| Structure | |
| Seats | 19 |
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Political groups
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Non aligned assembly (Consensus based)
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| Elections | |
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Last election
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November 23, 2015 |
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Next election
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October 7, 2019 |
| Meeting place | |
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| Legislative Building, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada | |
| Website | |
| www |
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Non aligned assembly (Consensus based)
The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories, Canada, is located in Yellowknife. The assembly is a unicameral elected body that creates and amends law in the Northwest Territories. The assembly was founded in 1870 and became active in 1872 with the first appointments from the Government of Canada.
Under the Northwest Territories Act the assembly is officially defined under federal law as "Legislative Council". However under Northwest Territories territorial law, it is defined as "Legislative Assembly". Under different periods of its history it has alternated names.
The Legislative Assembly was first known as the Temporary North-West Council and was created in 1870. The first appointments to the council were made on December 28, 1872. The Temporary Council was dissolved in 1876 and a new permanent council was appointed and moved to the new capital of Fort Livingstone in 1876. The council moved to Battleford a year later based on the planned location there of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The very first election to the Assembly would take place on March 23, 1881, as Lawrence Clarke was elected to represent the electoral district of Lorne. In 1883 the Assembly moved south to Regina based on amendments to the route of the railway. The first territory-wide election took place on September 15, 1885, known as the 1885 Northwest Territories election.
Three years later the first general election took place. All the voting members of the Assembly were elected for the first time, and an elected speaker took office. The Lieutenant Governor still had executive authority however and appointed and ran the cabinet. After the second general election in 1891 the first fully elected Assembly without any appointed members. The Assembly achieved Responsible Government for the first time in October 1897 as the Lieutenant Governor appointed Frederick Haultain as the first Premier to form a government. Robert Brett became the first Leader of the official opposition and party lines were roughly drawn based on Conservatives and Liberals.
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Wikipedia