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Yukon Party Parti du Yukon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Currie Dixon |
| President | Melanie Brais |
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Headquarters | Whitehorse, YT |
| Membership(2020) | 1,577[1] |
| Ideology | Conservatism Progressive conservatism Yukonregionalism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| Colours | Blue |
| Seats inLegislature | 14 / 21 |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheYukon Party, formerly theYukon Progressive Conservative Party, is aconservative political party inYukon, Canada. It is the current governing party, with a majority in theYukon Legislative Assembly.
The Yukon Progressive Conservative Party was founded in April 1978. Long time Yukon legislatorHilda Watson was elected as the party's first leader defeating Yukon MPErik Nielsen by one vote.[2] Watson had been a member of the territorialLegislative Council since 1970, and became the first woman in Canadian history to lead a political party into a general election. However, she was unable to win a seat in the1978 election, and consequently resigned.Chris Pearson then became the leader of the party and was able to get a position in the government.
The Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the1985 election by theYukon New Democratic Party (NDP) led byTony Penikett. With the increasing unpopularity of thePrime MinisterBrian Mulroney'sProgressive Conservative in the federal government, the Yukon Progressive Conservatives decided to sever their relations with the federal Conservatives. Later on, they renamed themselves the "Yukon Party" prior to the1992 election.
The party's first leadership convention as the Yukon Party was held in June 1991 and won by Chris Young, a 21-year-old former president of the Yukon Progressive Conservatives' youth chapter.[3] However, two Progressive Conservative MLAs,Bea Firth[4] andAlan Nordling,[5] quit the party within days of his victory, and formed theIndependent Alliance Party.
By August, however, Young resigned as leader on the grounds that he felt the voters of Yukon were not prepared to support a party whose leader was so young and politically inexperienced,[6] andJohn Ostashek was acclaimed as his successor in November after his sole challenger,Daniel Lang, dropped out of the race.[7]
The Yukon Party won the1992 election, and Ostashek becamePremier of Yukon. He won only a minority government, and Nordling, Firth andWillard Phelps were all reelected as independents,[8] but all three opted to support the Yukon Party on confidence and supply.[9] Ostashek's government became very unpopular by increasing taxes and cutting services. The party was defeated in the1996 election by theNDP, winning only three seats and falling to third place for the first time behind theYukon Liberal Party.
In the 1996 election, Nordling returned to the party; he was defeated as a Yukon Party candidate. Further, Firth retired from politics.
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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 theright wing vote moved to the Yukon Liberal Party, putting the Liberals in power for the first time in the territory's history.
Liberal PremierPat 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 aminority government within two years. Premier Duncan called asnap election for 4 November 2002, in an effort to regain her majority, but the early election call backfired.
The Yukon Party had electedDennis Fentie, a rural Member of theYukon Legislative Assembly (MLA), who had defected from theYukon New Democratic Party (NDP), as its new leader in June 2002. Despite being caught by surprise by the election call, the party was able to win amajority 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 the2016 Yukon general election and served as the Official Opposition.[10]
Currie Dixon led the party into the2021 territorial election, the Yukon Party won 8 seats and won the popular vote overall. Dixon was personally elected in the district ofCopperbelt North. On April 23, the incumbent Liberals were sworn in with aminority government.[11] On April 28, the NDP announced that they had entered into a formalconfidence and supply agreement with the Liberals.[12] He led the party into the2025 general election, where the party formed a majority government and received over 50 percent of the popular vote for the first time.
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Hilda Watson | 2,869 | 37.1 | 11 / 16 |  11 | 1st | Majority |
| 1982 | Chris Pearson | 4,770 | 46.9 | 10 / 16 |  1 |  1st | Majority |
| 1985 | Willard Phelps | 4,335 | 46.9 | 6 / 16 | 4 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1989 | 5,275 | 46.9 | 7 / 16 | 1 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| Changed name from Yukon Progressive Conservative Party to Yukon Party in 1991 | |||||||
| 1992 | John Ostashek | 4,675 | 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 | Third party | |
| 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 | 6,400 | 40.6 | 11 / 19 | 1 | 1st | Majority |
| 2016 | 6,272 | 33.4 | 6 / 19 | 5 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 2021 | Currie Dixon | 7,477 | 39.3 | 8 / 19 | 2 | 1st | Opposition |
| 2025 | 9,761 | 51.9 | 14 / 21 | 6 | 1st | Majority | |
Politics ofYukon | ||
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