Peggy Nash has been travelling the country for the last four months, trying to gather as many votes as she can for next month's NDP leadership vote.

The MP for Toronto's Parkdale-High Park riding and former party president is one seven candidates hoping to replace the late Jack Layton on March 24.

Nash was in Whitehorse Thursday to meet local supporters and talk about her plan to support the North.

She's been across the country and back again since launching her campaign at the end of October 2011, all in the name of "building trust” with voters.

The constant campaigning didn't seem to tire Nash, though — either that or she's good at hiding it.

Nash was quick to introduce herself to every supporter who came into the small room at the High Country Inn. She even complained the chairs set up in the room seemed too "formal”.

"We need to connect with the 40 per cent of Canadians who don't vote,” Nash said in an interview before her meet-and-greet.

"If you do that work, if you're lucky and you really build that trust, then hopefully they'll be there at election time and make the right decision.”

Nash believes the right decision, of course, is to vote for her.

She started her career as an airline booking agent and soon worked her way up to a job with the Canadian Airline Employees Association, after landing a job as a senior negotiator with the Canadian Auto Workers union.

In government, Nash has served as industry and finance critic.

"I think northerners proudly share a lot of the same values as the rest of Canadians,” she said.

"They want to have good jobs, sustainable environment, they want to make sure their health care is there when they need it and that their kids have the best start possible,” she said. "But the North also faces some real challenges.”

Nash, who was born in 1951, didn't have any quick and easy answers for what she believes to be some of the biggest challenges in the Yukon: getting a fair share of resource royalties, building a diversified economy and affordable housing.

She talked about Canada's failure to have a national housing strategy, and the fact that we're one of the only industrialized countries without one.

As for the Yukon's mining boom, Nash reiterated what Yukoners often hear from local NDP MLAs.

"It's great for jobs, it's great for economic development, but we have to make sure we're stewards of the land.”

Nathan Cullen, another NDP MP and leadership candidate, will be at Hellaby Hall from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Canadians have until Saturday to become an NDP member and be eligible to vote for Layton's successor.