Robert Hawkins (Northwest Territories politician) Robert Hawkins (Northwest Territories politician) Robert Hawkins is an engineering technologist and a former municipal and territorial level politician from Northwest Territories, Canada. Hawkins moved to Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories in 1977 as a child. Hawkins moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories in 1987 to begin schooling at Sir John Franklin High School. He attended his post secondary education at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary, Alberta. He began his political career when he was elected as a city councillor for Yellowknife City Council. He held that post until 2003 when he sought election to the territorial legislature. Hawkins was first elected to
Yellowknife Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the Canadian capital city with the smallest population. Yellowknife is on the Canadian Shield,