Achieving consensus in a non-partisan legislature can be difficult, Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik said this morning in Whitehorse.

Then again, it can be very fulfilling, he told some 65 ambassadors and high commissioners. They are in the city as part of the ninth annual Diplomatic Forum sponsored by Ottawa and held in different parts of Canada.

Okalik said that in Nunavut's legislature during debate on the annual budgets, each of the 18 independent members of the elected assembly can ask an unlimited number of questions on any of the financial matters.

It's a time, the premier suggested with a light grin, when one wonders if there's not a place for party politics in Canada's seven-year-old territory.

But when you do get consensus, everybody wins, Okalik said.

'When you achieve consensus, you accomplish something that is quite rare in government.'

Premier Joe Handley of the Northwest Territories said he's not about to argue whether the consensus style of government that exists in the N.W.T. is superior to the party-style of government in the Yukon and other jurisdictions.

But it does work for the Northwest Territories, he said.

The premier said you avoid the tense division within political parties that Canadians are currently witnessing in Alberta's right-wing juggernaut that prompted Premier Ralph Klein to announce his retirement earlier this year.

Handley told the ambassadors and high commissioners that the 19 members of the legislature are elected on their own record, their own stance and their own vision for the future.

Once elected, they select a speaker of the legislature, then a premier, then six other members to serve in cabinet. The premier assigns the portfolios, Handley pointed out.

The government, he said, is formed by himself and the six other cabinet members.

'We always end up in a minority, but it is a healthy role,' Handley said. 'I do not think at any time in the near future that we will evolve into a party-style of government.'

There is a move afoot in the Yukon to try to field a slate of independent candidates for the upcoming election this fall, in an attempt to replace party politics in the Yukon with a consensus style of government like in the two other territories.

Whitehorse businessman Kenn Roberts, who's helping to organize the push, believes the Yukon's population base of 31,000 is too small for party politics. Far too often, elected representatives in the Yukon are forced to toe the party line, and not represent the interests of the community which elected them, Roberts argues.

The annual Diplomatic Forum is held as an opportunity for ambassadors and high commissioners to Canada to experience different regions of the country. There are 130-plus foreign diplomats assigned to Canada, of which 65 or so began arriving here Sunday for three days of meetings that began Monday morning with an address by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

This morning's presentation by the three northern premiers was to kick off a day of discussions regarding northern issues and different models of governance above the 60th parallel.

Premier Dennis Fentie provided the dignitaries with a history of the territory, to the days of the Klondike Gold Rush and up through the decades of land claim negotiations which produced agreements with 11 of the Yukon's 14 first nations.

Fentie pointed out the 11 first nations with final agreements also have self-governing authority over a number of areas.

'Together, they constitute a new fourth order of government here in the Yukon.'

The 11 self-governing first nations and the Yukon government, the premier pointed out, have signed an accord that has created the Yukon Forum as a means of working co-operatively on the delivery of services to first nation and non-first nation Yukoners.

The territorial government, aboriginal governments and the federal government need to work together to build a North that is both sensitive to the needs of the citizens, but also to the environment, Fentie said.

Handley suggested it's time Ottawa let go of the matriarchal grasp of the North.

The northern premiers, said Handley, expect to be called premiers because they have all the duties and responsibilities of the provincial premiers, even if they do not have the same ownership and management authority over their lands and resources.

He said they do not get to vote on matters affecting the Constitution of Canada, as do the provincial premiers.

Diplomatic letters from the federal government will either be addressed to the premier, or to the government leader, depending on the mood in Ottawa, Handley told the diplomats.

He said it's time the federal government provide the Northwest Territories with ownership over its natural resources and revenue generated from those resources, instead of taking all the money and sending back an allowance cheque.

The Northwest Territories, with its 43,000 residents, he said, has a gross domestic product equal to that of Prince Edward Island, the country's least populated province at about 140,000 Islanders.

'We have to create our own future,' Handley told the audience. 'But we have a lot of challenges.'

Like Handley, the premier of Nunavut emphasized the challenges of governing a region of the country that is so remote, so inaccessible.

Very few of Nunavut's two million square kilometres are connected by road or rail, Okalik said.

'So that really adds to the challenge of stimulating economy,' he said. 'Because you need infrastructure to stimulate economy.'

Okalik, on the other hand, said Nunavut is advancing the territory's desire to increase the use of its traditional Inuktitut language in schools and government.

The territory, however, is also aware it must provide for the needs of those citizens of the territory who are not originally from there, but who choose to live among the Inuktitut.

Nunavut, Okalik pointed out, has three official languages: Inuktitut, English and French.

Okalik said a strong relationship has been built among the three territories, who've worked together on issues common to the North.

The unity of the three premiers on those issues has benefited the territories, he said.

Okalik said it's hoped the strong northern ties among the three territories will continue, mentioning both Fentie and Handley are both approaching territorial elections.

The Yukon premier must call an election no later than November.