Residents in Mark Carney's N.W.T. hometown send care package of local goods to the new PM

Natalie Pressman · CBC News

· Posted: May 11, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

A attraction bundle with goods from the premier minister's hometown successful the N.W.T. is connected its mode to Ottawa — and the pistillate who enactment it unneurotic conscionable hopes it'll marque him smile. 

"It was not a governmental gesture," said Patti-Kay Hamilton, of Fort Smith, N.W.T., but alternatively a mode "to accidental acknowledgment for making maine happy."

Prime Minister Mark Carney was calved successful Fort Smith and lived successful the confederate N.W.T. municipality until his household moved southbound erstwhile helium was astir six years old. Hamilton said that erstwhile Carney mentions his birthplace successful speeches and successful interviews, helium seems proud. 

Hamilton recalled watching a broadcast of Carney's sojourn to Iqaluit successful March erstwhile she noticed helium was shivering. 

"He conscionable looked truthful acold and I yelled astatine the television, 'give the antheral a hat!'" she said. 

That's erstwhile it struck her that sending a fur chapeau is thing she and others from Carney's hometown could do. Once others successful Fort Smith got word, Hamilton said radical were dropping each kinds of things by her location for the caller premier minister.   

There's nary fur chapeau successful the attraction bundle that's present successful the mail, but residents sent a look for bannock, a loppet toque, CDs from Fort Smith musicians, a broach carved from buffalo horn, a tiny vessel to commemorate Fort Smith's past arsenic the largest shipyard successful the territory, and a publication astir the historical 1968 landslide successful Fort Smith that would person affected immoderate of the children Carney went to kindergarten with successful Fort Smith.

The national government's website includes a conception connected gifts and items sent to the premier minister, and it says immoderate items can't beryllium accepted for information reasons, similar perishable goods. That's wherefore Hamilton couldn't nonstop the jam oregon chromatic oregon spruce salve that immoderate residents dropped off. 

The bannock look successful the attraction bundle is from Barb Mercredi and she had important proposal to marque definite the premier curate gets it right. 

"One important happening erstwhile making bannock is, don't implicit knead. Only knead 10 times [and] marque definite the oven rack is successful the middle," she said successful a Facebook message.

The bundle besides includes a beaded infinity awesome from the Fort Smith Métis, a stained solid hanging, and a tiny tumble chromatic — a unsocial benignant of stone that gets shaped by the swirling river, besides called concretion rocks. 

Hamilton said she present has a bully postulation of tumble stone.

"Little kids successful the vicinity recovered retired and they started dropping them disconnected astatine my backmost door," Hamilton said. "Finally we recovered a small tiny tumble chromatic that mightiness beryllium thing helium mightiness retrieve from his puerility erstwhile helium was here."

Also included successful the attraction bundle is simply a publication Hamilton wrote, chronicling the beingness of trapper and bush antheral Pi Kennedy. Hamilton said it was Kennedy's thought to nonstop it, suggesting Carney mightiness payment from immoderate of the book's lessons. 

"A trapper with a canine squad is simply a batch similar a premier curate ...you person to support trying adjacent if you autumn disconnected the canine sleigh," Hamilton said Kennedy told her.

"[Carney] should retrieve that if helium ever gets cornered by a battalion of wolves, basal your ground, don't backmost down, and ne'er crook your backmost connected a bare carnivore — those were [Kennedy's] messages."