CityVote Day 24: Harper promises to complete northern highway

Stephen Harper is reaching back to the 1950s vision of John Diefenbaker to promote Conservative election hopes in the Great White North.

The Conservative leader is in Yellowknife reiterating a promise to complete the Dempster Highway joining Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.

Harper says the project is of historic significance and completes the dream of Diefenbaker — known as The Chief — who wanted the country connected from sea to sea to northern sea.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is also mining for votes in the diamond capital of North America, a sign of the riding-by-riding trench warfare in advance of the May 2 general election.

There are less than 70,000 eligible voters spread across Canada’s Arctic and its three federal seats — fewer voters than can be found in a 15-block radius of many big-city ridings.

But all the northern seats — Western Arctic, Yukon and Nunavut — have a history of swinging among the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP, making them ripe territory for campaigning leaders.