With about two weeks left until the polling day of the federal election, the Yukon candidates are stepping up their campaigns.

Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell has already visited all the communities in the territory.

He told the Star this week he wanted to complete the visits prior to Christmas to ensure his campaigning wouldn't be as dependent on weather and road conditions.

In the June 2004 election, he said, he left visiting the communities until later in his campaign and wasn't able to get to them all.

One of the communities he missed was Keno City.

This campaign, Bagnell 'went to every single house (in Keno),' he said.

Bagnell said he hopes to be able to visit some of the communities a second time prior to the Jan. 23 polling date.

He is already scheduled to visit Carmacks and Teslin, and hopes to get to Old Crow.

Right now, though, he is turning his major focus to Whitehorse.

Bagnell decided not to distribute any election signs before Christmas. He didn't want to visibly interfere with people's holidays or light and decoration displays on their front lawns.

The signs will begin to appear this weekend. He said he already has had more than 200 people ask to display his name in their yards.

NDP candidate Pam Boyde is visiting the communities now. She has already spent time in Old Crow, Dawson City and Teslin.

She said she's 'campaigning hard,' and is a firm believer the key to winning the election is making 'voter contact.'

'I just need to talk to people,' she said.

Boyde said the response to her and the NDP's policies has been 'overwhelmingly positive.'

The 'balance of the (NDP's) campaign' will be focused in Whitehorse over the remaining two weeks, said Boyde. She plans to return to the city from her community visits early next week.

The communities she hasn't been able to visit and doors she won't be able to knock on in Whitehorse, she plans to phone.

Bagnell said he prefers to steer away from using the phone to campaign. Actually speaking to people in person is more effective, he said.

Boyde, though, said her campaign is on target. She doesn't have any major plans on what she may need to change leading into the final weeks in hopes of winning the election.

Boyde lost the 2004 election to Bagnell by 2,506 ballots. She garnered 3,215 votes while Bagnell commanded 5,721.

However, for this election, Audrey McLaughlin, the territory's former MP and the NDP's past leader, has become a key voice in Boyde's campaign.

Thursday McLaughlin announced she would be taking a 'higher profile' during the remainder of the campaign. This is the first time she will be visibly involved in a campaign since her 1997 retirement. (See story opposite.)

Though Boyde wouldn't label McLaughlin's support as an election strategy, she did say 'it's marvelous' to have the former leader's help.

'Everyone knows Audrey,' she said.

Conservative candidate Sue Greetham, meanwhile, has been working on a shorter timeline than Bagnell and Boyde. She wasn't acclaimed until Dec. 17.

The delay in her nomination has meant her campaign is focusing on 'conserving time,' she told the Star.

Greetham is meeting with large groups instead of going out door-to-door and talking to individuals one-on-one, she said.

The meetings are enabling her to present the Conservatives' stance on various issues and to discuss specific interests, she said.

Groups she has scheduled meetings with include the Association Franco-Yukonnaise, health organizations and crime prevention groups.

Greetham has also been talking with mining groups, who she said are 'seriously interested' in the Conservatives' platform.

Individuals wanting to meet with Greetham are having to contact her directly, she said, and she's making herself available.

'Every time we've got a minute (we go to the doors),' she said. 'We can't do it on a charge. There's just not the time.'

Despite Greetham's decision to not go door-to-door, she said she has been getting feedback from Yukoners via 40 to 60 e-mails sent to her campaign office a day.

'People are very interested in what we actually stand for,' she said.

The focus has been on making the Conservatives' platform very clear and giving Yukoners 'the facts,' she said.

Greetham has also been adjusting her campaign as she goes to respond to the 'various reactions and interests' that have been brought forward.

She said the number of e-mails and the contact made with the large groups suggest interest is really starting to build for the Conservative party in the Yukon.

Greetham hasn't yet campaigned outside of Whitehorse, but she will begin visiting some of the communities starting this weekend, including Dawson City, Haines Junction, Watson Lake and Faro.