Antony David John PenikettOC (born November 14,1945) is a mediator and negotiator and former politician in Yukon,Canada,who served as the third premier of Yukon from 1985 to 1992.
Born in Sussex,England,on November 14,1945,and educated at St Albans School in Hertfordshire,England,and in Alberta and Ontario,Penikett began his Yukon working life as an asbestos mine labourer at Clinton Creek,Yukon,where he became active in his union as a shop steward and chair of the grievance committee.
Penikett became a member of the New Democratic Party's federal council in 1973 and served as executive assistant to Ed Broadbent from 1975 to 1977.[2] He then returned to Yukon,where he was elected to Whitehorse City Council in 1977.[2]
He was president of the federal NDP from 1981 to 1985.[2]
The party won six seats in the 1982 election,retaining Official Opposition status.[4]
In the 1985 territorial election,the party won eight seats,forming a minority government with Penikett serving as government leader.[5] Four of the party's eight MLAs were of First Nations descent,with a by-election win by Danny Joe in 1987 bringing First Nations representation in the government to five out of nine;[6] this remains the all-time historical record for First Nations representation in a Canadian legislature.[6] Joe's by-election win also lifted the party to majority government status.[6]
Penikett fought the federal government for a better deal for the territory in Canadian confederation and for control over its natural resources.[7] He and Dennis Patterson,premier of the Northwest Territories,also fought for a greater role at First Minister's conferences.[8] Penikett's government negotiated and signed an umbrella agreement for First Nationsland claims,[9] negotiated the first four agreements with individual First Nations,[10] and developed an economic development strategy for the Yukon in consultation with citizens.
Penikett also brought forward the Yukon Human Rights Act,which banned discrimination on the basis of age,race,gender or sexual orientation.[6] It was only the second such act passed anywhere in Canada.[6]
The NDP formed a majority government after the 1989 election,winning nine seats.[11] Later that year,Penikett took on the title of Premier,[12] the first government leader in the territory to be given that title,in a bid to increase the territory's clout in relations with the federal and provincial governments.[13]
Penikett's government opposed the Meech Lake Accord,believing it would make it impossible for the Yukon to ever become a province.[14] According to Penikett,the accord violated the rights of Yukon residents by granting to each existing province an absolute veto over the creation of a new province,as well as by giving provinces,but not territories,consultation rights on the appointment of new Senators and new Supreme Court justices,[15] and would condemn northerners to "forever be second-class citizens".[16] Penikett's government fought the accord in court,although its case was dismissed by the Yukon Court of Appeal.[17] During the subsequent Charlottetown Accord negotiations,Penikett raised many of the same concerns that he had during Meech,[18] although he ultimately supported the final deal.[19]
After seven years in power,the NDP was defeated in the 1992 election by the conservativeYukon Party.[20] Penikett's successor,John Ostashek,dropped Penikett's use of the title "Premier",reverting to the older form "Government Leader",[20] although the "Premier" title was reinstituted in 1996 by Piers McDonald and has remained in use ever since.[20]
On April 25,1994 Penikett announced his resignation as leader of the Yukon NDP,[21] and was succeeded by Piers McDonald at a party convention in May 1995. There was an attempt later in 1994 to draft Penikett as a candidate in the federal New Democratic Party's 1995 leadership contest,but he declined to run.[22]
He remained in the legislature as the MLA for Whitehorse West until September 27,1995,when he resigned to accept a position as a policy advisor in the office of Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow.[2]
Later career
After two years as an advisor in the cabinet planning unit with the Government of Saskatchewan,in 1998 he was appointed by the government of British Columbia to lead contract negotiations with the province's public sector unions.[23]
Between 1998 and 2000,Penikett and his colleague John Calvert negotiated 32 public sector accords (on early retirement,pay equity and joint trusteeship of pension plans) with public sector employer organizations and unions representing 250,000 provincial public employers. This is to date the largest number of social contracts ever negotiated in Canada.
From 2001 to 2005,Penikett was a senior fellow on native treaty issues and a visiting professor for the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. He has also worked at the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation,and for West Coast Environmental Law.
Penikett was appointed as the University of Washington's Canada Fulbright Chair in Arctic Studies for 2013-14. For the duration of this award,he will be located at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies,and conducting a “Comparative Study of Canadian and U.S. Approaches to Issues of Arctic Governance in the 21st Century.”
Since 2001,he is the president of Tony Penikett Negotiations.
In 2020 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada,in recognition of his contributions as a teacher,negotiator and public servant.[24]
Penikett is the author of Reconciliation:First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia (Douglas &McIntyre,2006);two television films,The Mad Trapper (BBC TV,London,1972) and La Patrouille Perdu (ORTF,Paris,1974);and several plays.
Related Research Articles
Gary Albert Doer is a former Canadian politician and diplomat from Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada. He served as Canada's ambassador to the United States from 19 October 2009,to 3 March 2016. Doer previously served as the 20th premier of Manitoba from 1999 to 2009,leading a New Democratic Party government.
David Robert Peterson is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years,ending the so-called Tory dynasty.
Elijah Harper was a Canadian Oji-Cree politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (MLA) from 1981 to 1992 and a member of Parliament (MP) from 1993 to 1997. Harper was elected chief of the Red Sucker Lake Indian Band in 1978,serving for four years and worked as a policy analyst prior to entering politics. He was a key factor in the rejection of the Meech Lake Accord,a proposed amendment of the Canadian constitution.
The Yukon New Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in the Yukon territory of Canada.
The Yukon Party is a conservative political party in Yukon,Canada. It is the successor to the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party.
Dennis G. Fentie was a Canadian politician. He was the seventh premier of Yukon and leader of the Yukon Party,serving from 2002 to 2011,as well as the MLA for Watson Lake.
Piers McDonald,OC is a Yukon politician and businessman. Born in Kingston,Ontario,McDonald,originally a miner by profession,is a long-time MLA,Cabinet minister,and the fifth premier of Yukon. He was leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party from 1995 to 2000.
John Ostashek was a Yukon politician. An entrepreneur,he was elected leader of the Yukon Party in June 1992 and led it to victory in the fall 1992 election in which he also won a seat in the legislature for the first time.
Pat Duncan is a Canadian politician from Yukon. Duncan served as leader of the Yukon Liberal Party from 1998 to 2005 and as the sixth premier of Yukon from 2000 until 2002. Duncan was the first Liberal premier of the Yukon and the first female premier in the Yukon,the second woman in Canadian history to win the premiership of a province or territory through a general election,the first to do so by defeating an incumbent premier,and the first to do so by defeating a male opponent.
Peter James Maloway is a Canadian politician,who has served as a member of both the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
The 1990 Manitoba general election was held on September 11,1990 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the Province of Manitoba,Canada. It was won by the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party,which took 30 out of 57 seats. The New Democratic Party finished second with 20,while the Liberal Party fell from 21 to 7.
The 1988 Manitoba general election was held on April 26,1988 to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba,Canada. It resulted in a minority government. The Progressive Conservative Party won 25 seats,against 20 for the Liberal Party and 12 for the New Democratic Party.
Leonard Salusbury Evans was a Canadian politician in Manitoba. He was a member of the Manitoba legislature from 1969 to 1999 and was a Cabinet Minister in the governments of New Democratic Premiers Edward Schreyer and Howard Pawley.
The 1978 Yukon general election was held on November 20,1978,was the first conventional legislative election in the history of Canada's Yukon Territory. Prior elections were held to elect representatives to the Yukon Territorial Council,a non-partisan body that acted in an advisory role to the Commissioner of the Yukon. Following the passage of the Yukon Elections Act in 1977,the 1978 election was the first time that voters in the Yukon elected representatives to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in an election organized along political party lines.
The 1982 Yukon general election was held on June 7,1982,to elect members of the 25th Legislative Assembly of the territory of Yukon,Canada. It was won by the Progressive Conservatives.
Elaine Taylor is a Canadian politician. She is the former Deputy Premier of the Yukon and represented the electoral district of Whitehorse West in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. First elected in 2002,and re-elected in 2006 and 2011,she was defeated in the 2016 Yukon general election by Richard Mostyn of the Yukon Liberal Party.
Lois Moorcroft is a Canadian politician,who represented the electoral districts of Mount Lorne (1992-2000) and Copperbelt South (2011-2016) in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. She is a member of the Yukon New Democratic Party.
The 2011 general election in Yukon,Canada,took place on October 11,2011,to return members to the 33rd Yukon Legislative Assembly.
David Paul Porter is a former Canadian politician,who served in the Legislative Assembly of Yukon from 1982 to 1989. He was a member of the Yukon New Democratic Party.
References
1 2 "No all-candidates meetings in Yukon: Opponent wary of Tory hatchet man". The Globe and Mail, June 22, 1974.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
