Golf is not federal Liberal leadership hopeful Ken Dryden's game.

'I hit good enough shots that I seem that I am better than I am,' says Dryden, who was more than happy to put off getting out on the links at the local Liberal party's golf tournament on Sunday.

Dryden is one of 10 candidates seeking the party's nod to take the Liberals' helm in December.

The man's career is long.

He was Ontario's youth commissioner in the 1980s and was elected to the House of Commons in June 2004, serving as the Minister of Social Development. The York Centre MP is now the Liberals' Health critic.

But he is likely most known for six-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltending with the Montreal Canadiens between 1971 and 1979 and the role he played in 1972 on Team Canada vs. the former Soviet Union.

'People see me and people understand me as someone who is pretty good at knowing what the prize should be and once knowing what the prize should be, always keeping your eye on that prize,' he says.

Despite some hiccups in Dryden's campaign which recently resulted in the firing of his paid team due to fundraising challenges he is still considered one of the frontrunners of the race.

'A nine-month campaign is a long campaign,' he told the Star. 'It is what it is and you just have to adapt,' he says.

'The challenge of it is still the same, you still got to get to Dec. 3 and find a way to win. If one way doesn't work, you do it another, and if that doesn't work, you do it another way as well.'

Dryden has been focusing his run for the Liberals' top job on climate change, creating conditions economic success in Canada, getting Canada's policy caught up to the 21st century and addressing child care and learning.

He says the North plays a vital role in addressing those challenges that make up his vision for Canada's future.

'The North is part of every Canadian's imagination even if the great majority of them have never been,' he says.

Climate change, child care, education and training, aboriginal peoples and sovereignty are at the forefront of the minds of Canadians, he says, and close to the hearts of northerners.

The growing development and exploration of the North is a good thing, he says. It shows the promise and belief both government and business have in the territories.

'The atmosphere is changing in the North,' says Dryden. '(In the past), it was easy to think of the North as a place to exploit.

'But people who are here and people who are going to stay are planning for and working for the future.'

Dryden says the extent to which Canadians envision their country as a whole shouldn't be underestimated.

'I think the Conservatives may think that Canadians just think about their own backyard, but I don't think that's right.

'Canadians still want to know that the party they may be voting for is doing something in the North or about the North or for aboriginal peoples or for rural or remote.'

Dryden doesn't believe Canadians will see much action taken on the Kelowna Accord or the Northern Strategy under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.

'It's a whole question approached as if you're managing a problem as opposed to trying to deliver on a real solution,' he says of the Conservatives' first six months in office.

Dryden says the Conservative stance on the $5-billion Kelowna Accord is a tragedy.

The historic agreement was reached in the dying days of the federal Liberal government late last year. It was aimed at closing the gap between first nations and non-aboriginal Canadians in the areas of health care, housing, education and economic development opportunities over the next five years.

But with its notable exclusion from the federal Conservatives' first budget, many have speculated the accord is dead.

'The Kelowna accord was the right approach,' he says. 'Kelowna wasn't an easy thng to build to. It takes a long time to build to a Kelowna.

'It was not just a principle, it was the emotion behind the principle. Lots of principles are just the words that they are. This came with a determination.'

The accord was also about the relationship building between the various levels of government, he says, and that is one fundamental point the Conservatives are missing.

'This is not to win the small fights this time. This is the time to win the big one and this time we're getting there,' he says of his commitment to the accord.