Yukon Party

Yukon Party Parti du Yukon
Active territorial party
Leader	Stacey Hassard (interim)
President	Mark Beese
Founded	1991 (1991)
Preceded by	Progressive Conservative Party
Headquarters	Whitehorse, YT
Ideology	Conservatism Yukon regionalism Provincehood
Political position	Centre-right
Colours	Blue
Seats in Legislature	6 / 19
Website
www.yukonparty.ca
Politics of Yukon Political parties Elections

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The Yukon Party (French: Parti du Yukon) is a conservative political party in Yukon, Canada. It is the successor to the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party.

Formation

With Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative federal government's decreasing popularity, the Yukon Progressive Conservatives decided to sever its relations with the federal Conservatives, and renamed itself the "Yukon Party" prior to the 1992 election.

However, two Progressive Conservative MLAs, Bea Firth and Alan Nordling, quit the party in protest of the name change and formed the Independent Alliance Party. Nordling later returned to the party, and was defeated as a Yukon Party candidate in the 1996 election, while Firth retired from politics.

The Yukon Party won the 1992 election, and leader John Ostashek became Premier of Yukon. His government became very unpopular by increasing taxes and cutting services. The party was defeated in the 1996 election, winning only three seats and falling to third place for the first time behind the Yukon Liberal Party.

Since 2000

The party's fortunes continued to decline at the 2000 general election. The Yukon Party was reduced to a single seat in the legislature as the right wing vote moved to the Yukon Liberal Party, putting the Liberals in power for the first time in the territory's history.

Liberal Premier Pat Duncan's government was plagued with internal dissent, however, and despite having won an outright majority of seats in the general election, defections and resignations reduced the Liberals to a minority government within two years. Premier Duncan called a snap election for 4 November 2002, in an effort to regain her majority, but the early election call backfired.

The Yukon Party had elected Dennis Fentie, a rural Member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly (MLA), who had defected from the NDP, as its new leader in June 2002. Despite being caught by surprise by the election call, the party was able to win a majority government with 12 seats compared to five for the NDP. The Liberals were reduced to a single seat. Fentie became the second Yukon Premier from a rural riding.

On 10 October 2006, the Yukon Party was re-elected, holding 10 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Yukon Liberals won five seats and the Yukon New Democrats won three.

The party was defeated in the 2016 Yukon general election and is currently serving as the Official Opposition.

Leadership elections

2011 leadership election

On May 28, 2011, a leadership election was held to replace Dennis Fentie. Darrell Pasloski was chosen after only one ballot.

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Darrell Pasloski	767	61.3%
Rod Taylor	436	34.9%
Jim Kenyon	48	3.8%
TOTAL	1,251	100.0%

Election results

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
1992	John Ostashek		35.9	7 / 17	7	1st	Minority
1996		4,366	30.1	3 / 17	4	2nd	Opposition
2000		3,466	23.3	1 / 17	2	3rd	Opposition
2002	Dennis Fentie	5,650	40.3	12 / 18	11	1st	Majority
2006		5,503	40.6	10 / 18	2	1st	Majority
2011	Darrell Pasloski	5,503	40.6	11 / 19	1	1st	Majority
2016		6,272	33.4	6 / 19	5	2nd	Opposition

Leaders

• Chris Young 1991
• John Ostashek 1991–2000
• Peter Jenkins 2000–2002 (interim)
• Dennis Fentie 2002–2011
• Darrell Pasloski 2011–2016
• Stacey Hassard 2016–present (interim)

See also

• List of premiers of Yukon
• List of Yukon Leaders of Opposition
• Yukon Progressive Conservative Party

External links

• Yukon Party