Local businesswoman Pam Boyde was acclaimed Sunday afternoon as the NDP candidate for the federal election in the Yukon.

This is Boyde's second run for the seat in the House of Commons. She lost in the 2004 federal election to Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell.

Boyde garnered 3,215 votes while Bagnell commanded 5,721.

'It's a great feeling,' Boyde said this morning of her acclamation at the Building Trades Hall. 'There's lots to do.'

Boyde is spending today wrapping up commitments with her job at Touch the North and will then be hitting the campaign trail.

'That will be my job (for the next while). I want to win and you have to be focused,' she said, adding Bagnell has a bit of an advantage because he meets with constituents on a regular basis as an MP.

But Boyde plans to use her experiences from the last campaign to make up time and to bring the NDP's message to the communities of the Yukon.

The party's campaign will be focused on health care, education and ethics in government, she said.

'I am looking forward to getting out and meeting people and telling them about the New Democrat position,' said Boyde.

'I'm fed up with what I've seen happening in Ottawa. People are fed up with government, and if they are concerned about where their vote goes, I'd suggest it goes to the New Democrats.'

Boyde stressed the NDP isn't a party that focuses solely on social issues.

'We do believe in prosperity,' she said. 'We believe that by addressing the social needs of people that does bring prosperity.

'In order for a country to be truly competitive, they have to look after their citizens.'

By working on issues such as public health care, quality and affordable education, providing affordable housing, addressing concerns of aboriginals and restoring people's belief in government, Canada will be able to ensure that it is a country people want to live in and it will then be able to compete in a global market, said Boyde.

The NDP is the most open and transparent of the parties, she added.

'We have proven that with more NDP members in the House, we can make a difference,' she said. 'It's the little things that make the difference.'

Boyde was born in Montreal and raised in British Columbia.

She first came up the Alaska Highway in the summer of 1971 to visit her future husband, Jim, who was working in the territory.

The pair loved the Yukon and began doing canoe trips in 1976, buying property and visiting the territory each summer until 1985, when Jim took a job in Mayo.

Boyde is a trained nurse with a specialty in sports medicine. When she first came to the territory, she worked as a co-ordinator at Mayo's Yukon College campus.

She has previously worked in territorial politics, as an assistant Piers McDonald in 1988, while he served as a cabinet minister in Tony Penikett's NDP government. She later became one of his main aides when he served as premier from 1996 to 2000.

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.

The Conservatives' Erik Nielsen represented the territory for 30 years beginning in 1957.

Audrey 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.