YELLOWKNIFE — Stephen Kakfwi, the stubborn, outspoken premier of the Northwest Territories who has been at the centre of two generations of dramatic change in the North, has announced he will not run in the upcoming territorial election.

"The decision is made and I feel mostly good about it," Kakfwi, 52, said Wednesday. "I've done my job as best I can. I've been fighting for things that I believe in.

"There's no simple answer as to what one event led me to this. I just looked at a thousand things and decided what they mean for me.

"I leave on a high note."

Although Kakfwi has close ties to the federal Liberals and has never ruled out federal politics, he renewed his support Wednesday for Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the current MP for the western arctic.

"There is no prospect for me in federal politics," he said. "I'm going to spend my entire time working as a premier until my last day.

"There will be lots of time after that to talk to you about my plans if they materialize."

The next election is Nov. 24.

Kakfwi's time in the territorial legislature has seen the N.W.T. through the establishment of a Canadian diamond industry and the return of the energy sector to the North. In countless speeches to business groups in Canada and the U.S., Kakfwi has said that the billions of dollars that have poured north and the prospect of more to come have put the N.W.T. on the threshold of becoming a "have" territory.

"The dream is so close to reality it's amazing," he said.

"We've changed history. We've changed the course of the Northwest Territories over the last 30 years.

"It's a good time to leave."

His political career began in the 1970s, when he was a Dene activist opposing the construction of a natural gas pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley.

He was first elected to the territorial legislature in 1987 and over the course of four elections served in a wide variety of cabinet posts. He has been premier since 2000.

Kakfwi's opposition to resource development faded long ago. Judging that northerners and especially northern aboriginals were increasingly capable of looking after their own interests and, in fact, needed the jobs that development would bring, he has been an enthusiastic advocate of pipelines and diamond mines.

"I have been the most passionate, outspoken advocate for that (pipeline) over the last three and a half years," he said.

However, Kakfwi has always insisted that development take place on the North's terms.

He took the lead in negotiations that ensured Northern companies would get a share of the rough diamonds taken from the tundra, giving rise to what is now a burgeoning diamond-processing industry in Yellowknife.

Kakfwi was born near Fort Good Hope along the Mackenzie River on Nov. 7, 1950 - "in a warm, cozy tent," he said in a 2001 interview.

When he was 11, Kakfwi was sent to Grolier Hall, a now-infamous residential school in Inuvik.

"I was beaten and sexually abused," he said. "They tried to break my spirit and they came pretty damn close to it."

Kakfwi became involved in politics 1974 when he was offered a job in the Indian Brotherhood, one of the first aboriginal organizations in the North.

It was the time of the Berger Commission, a federal inquiry into the impact of a proposed gas pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley. Though he is now an enthusiastic backer of the plan, back then Kakfwi opposed it.

Kakfwi succeeded Erasmus as head of the Dene Nation and led the group from 1983-87.

Along the way, he spent some time in a Toronto treatment centre battling a drinking problem. He's been dry since 1986.

Since leaving aboriginal politics for the territorial legislature in 1987, Kakfwi has served in eight different ministries. He developed a reputation as a tough operator, outspoken and stoically impossible to read.

Once, he recalls, a colleague got so angry at him he had to be held back and came within inches of hitting him.

"I might have blinked, but otherwise I didn't move," Kakfwi said.

In 2001, some members of the territorial legislature tried to remove him through non-confidence motions, but Kakfwi mustered the support to stay on.

Sometimes Kakfwi's straight talk brought results.

When diamonds first started coming out of the BHP mine in the late 1990s, few gave Yellowknife much of a chance to develop any kind of a sorting, cutting and polishing industry. Canadian diamonds, everyone said, including the federal government, would be shipped off to Antwerp straight out of the ground.

Kakfwi said no. There are now three cutting plants and a sorting facility in Yellowknife, offering more than 100 jobs.

Kakfwi is also willing to take unpopular positions. He championed extra seats in the legislature for Yellowknife to ease an imbalance and he fought for the Charlottetown constitutional accord.

Few have seen it, but Kakfwi does have a lighter side. He's been known to enliven first ministers meetings with his guitar and one summer he toured northern music festivals, performing his own songs and his versions of Bob Dylan classics.

He even met Dylan once after an Edmonton performance.

Kakfwi admits he will miss the job, but leaves with characteristic decisiveness.

"There's a tinge of sadness. It was a difficult choice to make, but I made it with my family and I feel good about it."