Self-inflicted wounds are surely among the most painful for political leaders.
Ask the NWT's premier.
Caroline Cochrane deserves credit – along with chief public health officer (CPHO) Kami Kandola and Health Minister Diane Thom – for keeping a lid on Covid-19 and protecting the health of territorial residents.
But when it comes to communications, Cochrane and one particular cabinet minister – ahem, R.J. Simpson – have dropped the ball more than once.
The latest gaffe came on Tuesday. Thom said tourists will not be welcomed to the NWT during phase two of the GNWT's Emerging Wisely plan, which guides the territory in safely restoring degrees of normalcy during the global pandemic.
But Cochrane made a statement in the media indicating that "tourism is on the table." 
On Wednesday, Cochrane, Thom and Kandola issued a joint declaration to cut through the confusion. It stated that all visitors seeking to travel in the NWT must self-isolate for 14 days.
Back things up to mid-May and there was another unnecessary Covid kerfuffle. Although schools had been closed for two months, a May 12 government announcement for phase one of the Emerging Wisely plan revealed that schools were among the eligible public buildings that could reopen, with precautionary conditions in place.
Some jaws hit the floor. Educators, the public and even some MLAs never saw that development coming.
The school boards in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah crafted a May 13 joint letter to staff, students and parents expressing their surprise.
And yet, that same day, Cochrane claimed during a news conference that Education Minister R.J. Simpson had been working closely with the school bodies and he left it up to them whether to reconvene classes.
A teleconference between Simpson and education board members subsequently led to agreement that schools won't reopen until the fall, at the earliest.
Turning the calendar back to early February, Simpson and Cochrane were embroiled in a weeks-long verbal slugfest – a very public one – with Tom Weegar, erstwhile president of Aurora College. Weegar said he was fired, and he never saw it coming. Simpson initially told the media that Cochrane met with Weegar directly and Simpson himself was excluded, so he didn't know the details surrounding the parting of ways with Weegar.
A day later, Simpson's story changed decidedly. All of a sudden, he recalled encouraging Cochrane to fire Weegar, and he said he was made aware of the termination after it occurred. He went on to blame the media for the misunderstanding.
Cochrane did her best at that point to avoid commenting on "a human resources matter."
However, the premier would get dragged into the spat in the legislative assembly weeks later when Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty accused her of violating the Aurora College Act by overstepping her authority when she fired Weegar. Lafferty argued that the act specifies it's the privilege of the education minister to appoint and, in his opinion, to fire Aurora College's president. Cochrane insisted that the act doesn't specify who does the terminating.
It was a messy affair.
So there are three examples of botched communications over the past four months. Granted, the novel challenges of Covid-19 have made co-ordinating a recovery strategy and clearly explaining it a difficult task. However, it's been an equally burdensome period for the public, who are seeking unambiguous direction.
If they want to retain the confidence of NWT residents, the premier and her ministers must be sure they're on the same page.