Pam Boyde, a local businesswoman, has announced her intention to seek the NDP nomination for the federal election.

Boyde ran in the June 2004 federal election, garnering 3,215 votes, but lost to Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell, who commanded 5,721 votes.

However, Boyde said she believes this campaign may prove to be a more challenging win for Bagnell, who's seeking his third term.

'With more New Democrats in the House of Commons, we've seen that we can make government work for people,' Boyde said as she made her announcement outside Whitehorse General Hospital this morning.

The -25 C press conference gave a glimpse of what the longest and most wintry campaign in a quarter of a century holds for the candidates and voters as Canada slowly works toward its Jan. 23, 2006 polling date.

'I think people recognize now what 12 years of Liberal government has done for our country. It has emasculated our public health care system, it has made people more cynical about government and politicians today,' she said.

Boyde stressed the reason Canada is going into a Christmas election is because 'Paul Martin and the Liberal government did not want to protect health. They did not want to stop privatization of our health care system.

'What we're seeing is a health care system that means you'll get your quality health care if you have the money. What the Liberals are saying is they believe in a two-tier health care system. I don't believe that Yukoners want a two-tier health care system. We want a strong responsive, universal, public health care system,' she said.

The election is also about ethics and integrity in government, said Boyde.

'We need to bring ethics and honest and integrity back to government. That's what I'm running on.'

The NDP will be focusing on bringing down tuition for students, more affordable housing options and housing and education for aboriginals, she said.

'People vote for the person, but they also vote for what that person stands for; for the party that they stand with.

'As Larry (Bagnell) is running for the Liberal party, he is running on the same platform that brought our country to the situation it is in today.'

Bagnell may deliver cheques for projects other Yukoners have fought for, but he doesn't stand up for initiatives experiencing challenges, said Boyde.

'We need someone who will be there, roll up their sleeves and work with Yukoners for the Yukon in Ottawa. When I'm around, people say, Oh, Larry, he's a nice guy.' Well, I'm a pretty nice lady, and I work very hard.'

Boyde was born in Montreal and raised in B.C. She first came up the Alaska Highway in the summer of 1971 to visit her future husband, Jim, who was working in the territory. She settled here in 1985.

Boyde has worked at Yukon College and was also an assistant to Piers McDonald while he served as a cabinet minister in Tony Penikett's NDP government in 1988. She was one of McDonald's main aides in the 1990s when he served one term as premier.

She is currently partnered in the operation of a consulting company, Touch the North.

The Yukon had been an NDP stronghold for over a decade in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s after being Conservative-dominated for the majority of the 20th century. Erik Nielsen represented the territory for 30 years beginning in 1957.

McLaughlin held the riding from 1987 to 1997, when she retired from politics and Louise Hardy won. Hardy held the seat for one term, from 1997 to 2000, when Bagnell defeated her in that year's election.

The NDP nomination meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Building Trades Hall on Strickland Street.