Photo: TravelingOtter from Houston, Texas, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Northwest Territories, which takes in Yellowknife, is held by Rebecca Alty (Liberal Party of Canada)
Locally, Yellowknife is run as a city. In the Northwest Territories, councils aren’t on any open list we can use, so Yellowknife’s mayor isn’t named. Without an open map of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories’s ridings, this page can’t say which one Yellowknife is in. Of the 1 Commons seats from the Northwest Territories, the Liberal Party of Canada holds 1.
Three governments, and who does what
Yellowknife, a city in Northwest Territories, shares the work with the province and Ottawa.
Local services, by-laws and property tax.
Schools, health care, highways, municipal law.
ntassembly.ca ↗Passports, pensions, EI, defence, immigration.
ourcommons.ca ↗Who to ask
Green: municipal. Gold: provincial. Grey: federal.
The census places Yellowknife in Region 6, a division that governs nothing; no county council sits above the town’s.
From the council table to Ottawa
Every elected tier that speaks for Yellowknife, from the most recent elections.
- 1Yellowknife councilCity
- 2Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories–
- 3House of CommonsNorthwest Territories
Party colours are neutral on purpose: they tell parties apart and aren’t the parties’ own. MPs: Wikidata (CC0), 45th Parliament statements, read 7 November 2026; ridings: 2023 Representation Order, Statistics Canada
When Yellowknife votes
The last and next general elections at each level; a by-election can come in between.
| Election | Last | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Yellowknife council | 21 October 2024 | – |
| Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories | 14 November 2023 | – |
| House of Commons | 28 April 2025 | – |
The latest vote shown is 2021: the 2025 counts carry Elections Canada’s non-commercial terms. Parliament was last elected on 28 April 2025, and the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories on 14 November 2023. The last general municipal elections in the Northwest Territories took place on 21 October 2024.
Election dates: the legislatures, MMAH and MAMH
The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories: riding not placed
Provinces and territories run schools, health care and municipal law; each riding elects one MLA.
Find your MLA on the legislature’s site
ntassembly.ca ↗Legislatures: their own member pages
Rebecca Alty represents Northwest Territories in Ottawa
Each riding elects one MP to the House of Commons; the general election of 28 April 2025 chose the 45th Parliament.
Northwest Territories · Liberal Party of Canada
en.wikipedia.org ↗- Liberal Party of Canada1
As Wikidata records them.
The MP’s record
Mapped onto today’s Northwest Territories, the 2021 vote gives the Liberal Party of Canada 38%; in 2025 Rebecca Alty kept the seat in the same hands. The 2025 general election sent Rebecca Alty to the Commons for the first time. Before Ottawa, Rebecca Alty served as mayor of Yellowknife.
MPs: Wikidata (CC0), 45th Parliament statements, read 7 November 2026; ridings: 2023 Representation Order, Statistics Canada · MPs’ records: Wikidata (CC0), positions held and party memberships, read 8 November 2026
Michael McLeod kept Northwest Territories for the Liberal Party of Canada in 2021
Results in Northwest Territories as drawn in 2013, the boundaries of the 2019 and 2021 elections; the riding was redrawn for 2025.
The 2019 result had favoured Michael McLeod as well, at 40%. The 2021 count in Northwest Territories put Michael McLeod (Liberal Party of Canada) first at 38%, with Kelvin Kotchilea (New Democratic Party) 829 votes back. At 47%, fewer of Northwest Territories voted in 2021 than Canada as a whole (63%).
All 5 candidates in Northwest Territories, 2021
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael McLeod | Liberal Party of Canada | 5,387 | 38.2% |
| Kelvin Kotchilea | New Democratic Party | 4,558 | 32.3% |
| Lea Anne Mollison | Conservative Party of Canada | 2,031 | 14.4% |
| Jane Groenewegen | Independent | 1,791 | 12.7% |
| Roland Laufer | Green Party of Canada | 328 | 2.3% |
Federal results: Elections Canada, 43rd and 44th general elections and the 44th’s transposition to the 2023 ridings, via open.canada.ca. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada
Having a say in how Yellowknife is run
Check or update the federal list.
elections.ca ↗Every MP lists an office.
ourcommons.ca ↗Ridings, registration and voting dates.
electionsnwt.ca ↗What this data can and can’t tell you
- Who holds each seat. Who holds each seat is read from Wikidata, so a very recent change in the Commons may not appear yet.
- Which riding. The 2021 Census homes of a place’s residents fix its ridings, and one is shown once it holds 5% of them.
- Election results. Ridings changed in 2023: the 2019 and 2021 results are on the old map, and the 2021 vote on today’s map is Elections Canada’s own estimate from polling divisions.
- Not on this page. No council budgets, no band councils, and no party tally for the council, which the open lists don’t record.
Questions about how Yellowknife is run
Who is the MP for Yellowknife?
For Yellowknife, it’s Rebecca Alty (Liberal Party of Canada), who holds Northwest Territories.
Which party won Yellowknife in the 2021 federal election?
Northwest Territories went to Michael McLeod (Liberal Party of Canada) in 2021. Since 2025, Rebecca Alty has been the MP for Northwest Territories.
Who is the MLA for Yellowknife?
The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories’s website names each MLA by riding; the riding of Yellowknife has to be looked up there.
Who heads the council in Yellowknife?
Yellowknife, a city, lists its council on its own pages; no open list names the head here.
Sources: MPs: Wikidata (CC0), 45th Parliament statements, read 7 November 2026; ridings: 2023 Representation Order, Statistics Canada · Municipality types: Statistics Canada census subdivisions · Federal results: Elections Canada, 43rd and 44th general elections and the 44th’s transposition to the 2023 ridings, via open.canada.ca. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada · MPs’ records: Wikidata (CC0), positions held and party memberships, read 8 November 2026. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).