50 years ago today, Yellowknife chosen as capital of Northwest Territories

Fifty years ago today, Yellowknife was chosen as the capital of the Northwest Territories.

Then-Northern DevelopmentMinister Arthur Laingmade the announcement on Jan. 18, 1967.

"Reaction in Yellowknife was jubilant," reported CBC Radio's Bill Connolly at the time."Reactions elsewhere were mixed."

Up to that point, the members of the council that ran the N.W.T. lived and worked in Ottawa and administrative functions for the territory were mostly carried out by civil servants in Fort Smith.

Besides Yellowknife, six other communitiesin N.W.T. had bid to be the capital: Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Pine Point, Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) and Rankin Inlet.

Listen to Connolly's full radio report from 1967: