Canada: Conservatives’ federal election campaign heads North with infrastructure announcement
Conservative leader Stephen Harper brought his election campaign north on Friday with a promise to finance a $14-million road improvement project on Highway 5 in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
“Investments like this make life easier and safer both for the folks that live here and for tourists,” Harper said at a campaign stop in the N.W.T. community of Hay River.
Currently the stretch of Highway 5 between Hay River and the community of Fort Smith, located about 270 kilometres to the east, is mostly gravel.
Harper, Canada’s current prime minister, said if that if re-elected, his Conservative government would assume the full cost of the project to pave the road, widen it, and install culverts.
Harper has long made the Arctic a key legacy project of his leadership and Friday’s stop was the first time he has campaigned in the North since the election campaign was launched on August 2.
A stop is scheduled later this afternoon in Iqaluit, the capital city of Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut.
Canadians go to the polls on October 19.
Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: The geometries of Arctic all-weather road construction, Blog by Mia Bennett
Norway: Norway delays bridge-building to Russia on road to Crimea, Barents Observer
Russia: Murmansk, Russia: Transport hub trouble, again, Barents Observer
Norway: Norway improving infrastructure on Arctic island, Barents Observer
United States: Distinct visions for Alaska port project, Alaska Dispatch News
