NDP platform also promises to boost tax deduction to $9,000

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton launched his party's northern platform Oct. 3 with a campaign stop in Iqaluit that more closely resembled a community feast than a political rally.

Layton ate muskox stew and danced with an elder before taking the microphone and launching a broadside against the Conservative Party's northern policies.

Once again ridiculing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's now-famous "use it or lose it" approach to Arctic sovereignty, Layton said the government has spent too much time and money on military personnel and installations.

Instead, he pledged spending more on infrastructure, education and health care for Northerners and creating a Northern economic development agency.

"The best way to protect the sovereignty of the North is to protect the communities of the North," Layton said.

Paul Irngaut, the NDP's candidate in Nunavut, also mocked Harper's interest in the North as misguided.

"‘Use it or lose it' he says. Well I have a message for Stephen Harper. We are already here," Irngaut said to the delight of a mostly partisan crowd.

But Layton also acknowledged he wants to provide the coast guard with heavy icebreakers, put more RCMP and environmental enforcement officers in the North, expand search and rescue capabilities and give new gear to the Canadian Rangers.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Layton admitted he didn't have a precise figure of how much all that would cost.

"In some cases it's a question of reallocation, because [Stephen] Harper has picked the wrong kind of equipment for the North," Layton said. That's a veiled reference to the armed patrol ships the Conservatives bought to patrol Arctic waters, which can break through ice up to one metre thick and can't be used year-round in the North.

The NDP's northern platform also promises to increase the Northern residents tax deduction, from $6,000 to $9,000 per year, indexed to inflation.

But he earned the biggest round of applause for saying he'd fully implement the Nunavut land claims agreement, though he didn't give specifics.

"We will make it a priority to have that agreement implemented," Layton said.

Irngaut said the rally, which drew more than 200 people to Nakasuk School on a busy Friday night, served as a boost for his campaign, where he's running against Liberal Kirt Ejesiak, Conservative Leona Aglukkaq and the Green Party's Peter Ittinuar in a race with no clear favourite.

And Irngaut wasn't bothered that the only question the dozen southern reporters who travelled with Layton had was how to pronounce his last name.

"It's important for people to see the leader," he said.