Popular vote by riding. As this is an First-Past-The-Post election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Riding names are listed at the bottom of the map.
The 38th general election in Yukon, Canada, took place on November 7, 2016 to return members to the 34th Yukon Legislative Assembly.[1]
Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three federal territories. It has the smallest population of any province or territory in Canada, with 35,874 people. Whitehorse is the territorial capital and Yukon's only city.
The election was fought over issues relating to the economy, the environment, First Nations reconciliation, fracking, and the merits of a territorial carbon tax. The incumbent Yukon Party government, led by Darrell Pasloski, was defeated by the third party Liberal Party of Sandy Silver, ending 14 years of Yukon Party rule.
The Yukon Party is a conservative political party in Yukon, Canada. It is the successor to the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party.
Darrell Thomas Pasloski is a territorial politician from Yukon, Canada, who was leader of the Yukon Party, and served as the eighth Premier of Yukon from 2011 to 2016. His party was defeated in the general election of November, 2016, and he lost his own seat. He was succeeded by Sandy Silver as Premier of Yukon on December 3, 2016.
The Yukon Liberal Party is a political party in the territory of Yukon, Canada.
Premier Darrell Pasloski lost his own seat.
Pre-writ period
August 17, 2012: Darius Elias resigns as interim Liberal leader and sits as an independent.[2]
July 8, 2013: Darius Elias crosses the floor to the Yukon Party.[3]
May 10, 2016: David Laxton stepped down as Speaker and as a member of the Yukon Party caucus to sit as an Independent MLA due to personal reasons.[6] It would later come out that the resignation was due to an allegation of sexual harassment leveled at Laxton.[7] One month later, the Yukon Party would bar Laxton from running for the party in the upcoming election.[8]
June 8, 2016: Education Minister and veteran territorial and municipal politician Doug Graham announces he will not seek re-election in his riding of Porter Creek North.[9]
June 15, 2016: Currie Dixon, minister for Community Services, announces he will not seek a second term as MLA for Copperbelt North. In 2011, Dixon became the Yukon's youngest-ever cabinet minister at the age of 26.[10]
Aug. 11, 2016: After saying he would not run in the upcoming territorial election, Education Minister Doug Graham announced he would seek the Yukon Party nomination in Whitehorse Centre. Graham has been the Yukon Party MLA for Porter Creek North since 2011.[11]
October 7, 2016: Premier Darrell Pasloski calls the election for November 7, 2016, starting the official 31-day campaign period.[12]
Darius Mortimer Elias is a Canadian politician. He represented the rural Yukon electoral district of Vuntut Gwitchin in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2006–2016 as a member of both the Yukon Liberal Party and the Yukon Party.
Sidney Alexander "Sandy" Silver is a Canadian politician, the ninth and current premier of Yukon since 2016. He was first elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 election, and was re-elected in 2016. He represents the electoral district of Klondike and is Leader of the Yukon Liberal Party.
David Laxton is a Canadian politician who was elected to in the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 election. He served as the 10th Speaker of the Yukon Legislative Assembly and represented the electoral district of Porter Creek Centre on behalf of the Yukon Party until his resignation from caucus in mid-2016.
2016 Campaign
During the campaign, the issues of economic diversification, environmental management, and First Nations reconciliation were central themes, as was each party's stance on fracking.[13] The announcement that the federal government would impose a national carbon tax[14] also affected the political direction of the campaign, with the Yukon Party vowing to fight any effort to impose a carbon tax on the Yukon.
A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels. It is a form of carbon pricing. Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted. In contrast, non-combustion energy sources—wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear—do not convert hydrocarbons to CO 2.
The incumbent Yukon Party, led by Darrell Pasloski since 2011, had governed the Yukon since 2002 when it defeated the Yukon Liberal Party. While the Yukon Party had been re-elected in 2011 during a commodity boom, by 2016 the Yukon economy was in a recession.[15] Leading into the 2016 campaign, the Yukon Party was drawing criticism over its poor relationship with First Nations, its stance on the environment, access to healthcare, and a perceived mismanagement of the Yukon economy.[16]
The Yukon Party ran on a campaign of True North. Central to this campaign was prioritizing the creation of jobs, growing the economy, and keeping taxes low. It also adamantly opposed the federal carbon tax.[17]
The Yukon Party entered the 2016 campaign with ten of its twelve MLAs seeking re-election, albeit it with two running in different ridings (Scott Kent and Doug Graham).
The Yukon New Democratic Party, led by Liz Hanson, had been the Official Opposition since 2011. The party had been critical of the Yukon Party’s relationship with First Nations, its stewardship of the economy, and its management of government services such as healthcare.
The Yukon New Democratic Party ran on a campaign of Building a Better Yukon. The party emphasized the need for a change in government, and championed causes such as improving the healthcare system, transparent government, First Nations reconciliation, and economic diversification. It supported investing a federal carbon tax in green energy and low income supports.[18]
All six Yukon New Democratic Party MLAs sought re-election.
The Yukon Liberal Party, led by Sandy Silver, held only one seat after Darius Elias joined the Yukon Party. The Liberal platform, Be Heard, promoted economic diversification, responsible environmental management, and improving First Nations relations. The Liberals promised to return funds raised from a federal carbon tax back to Yukoners.[19]
Despite having only one seat, the party gained visibility in late 2015 following the election the Liberal Party of Canada to a majority government; it had also been the Third Party. The Yukon Liberal Party had led in the two opinion polls prior to the election period, despite holding just one seat in the legislature – Sandy Silver’s district of Klondike. The Liberals also gained attention due to a series of high-profile contested nominations that helped build the profile of their candidates and party in the lead up to the campaign.
The Yukon Green Party, led by Frank De Jong, running in its second election, championed the issue of climate change and electoral reform. It also opposed the public funding of Catholic schools. The Green Party had no incumbent MLAs leading into the election, but managed to run five candidates during the campaign.[20]
Controversy arose when the Chief Electoral Officer launched two inquiries during the campaign, citing concerns about proxy voting, special ballots, and purposeful misinformation by all three candidates in the Mountainview riding, as well as the use of proxy votes by Liberal candidate Tamara Goeppel in the Whitehorse Centre riding. The Chief Electoral Officer eventually ruled that there was no wrongdoing in Mountainview,[21] but her inquiry into Whitehorse Centre led the RCMP to press charges in February 2017.[22][23]
The election also marked a continued trend in the turnout at advance polls, which had doubled in each of the previous two elections.[24] In the 2016 election, advanced turnout doubled again, with 6,437 voters casting advance or special ballots. This represented more than one-in-three votes cast in the election overall (18,787).[25]
Results
The Yukon Liberal Party was elected to a majority government on November 7, 2016, with 11/19 seats. The 2016 election resulted in one of the single-largest gain of seats for a party in Yukon history (+10), tying for the Yukon Party win of 2002. It was the Liberals’ second time being elected to power in the Yukon.
The Liberals also posted their best ever returns in rural Yukon, winning four of eight rural seats. In Whitehorse, the Liberals posted their second-best returns in party history, taking seven of eleven seats (the party had swept the city in the 2000 election). However, despite winning the popular vote comfortably, many Liberal margins of victory were quite narrow.
A judicial recount was later held to confirm the results in the districts of Vuntut Gwitchin and Mountainview. It was determined that in both instances, the Liberal candidate won by seven votes.
The Yukon Party saw five of its MLAs re-elected, with one new candidate, Geraldine Van Bibber, elected. However, Premier Pasloski, Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor, and ministers Mike Nixon and Doug Graham were all defeated. The party also failed to retain two of the three seats where incumbents had not sought re-election.
The New Democratic Party lost four of its six seats, with party leader Liz Hanson and incumbent Kate White the only two re-elected. In two ridings, New Democrat incumbents lost narrowly to Liberal star candidates: Kevin Barr lost to former Whitehorse City Councillor and environmental scientist John Streicker by 14 votes in Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes and Jan Stick lost to former Ombudsman Tracy McPhee by 37 votes in Riverdale South. It was the party’s worst electoral showing since 1978.
No Green Party candidate was elected.
Surprisingly, the number of individual votes received by the Yukon Party and the New Democrats was also largely unchanged; each party received only about 200 votes less than it had in 2011. The gain in Liberal support (+3,500 votes) could possibly be attributable in part to the increase in Yukon population between 2011 and 2016. In ridings where the population had increased notably in that time - Whitehorse West, Porter Creek Centre, Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes, Whitehorse Centre, Porter Creek North, Takhini-Kopper King, and Copperbelt South - Liberal support rose substantially over the last campaign.[original research?] Despite this increase in votes, however, the Yukon Liberal Party still received a smaller share of the popular vote than the Yukon Party did in the 2011 election. In some of these larger ridings too, the Liberals saw a significant increase in votes, only to lose still.
Turnout was 79.9% (18,787 votes), the highest in Yukon history and the highest since 1996.[26]
Campaign Donations
The election marked the highest-ever levels of expenditures and revenue (cash and in-kind) by the Yukon political parties in an election year. In 2016, Elections Yukon reported that the Yukon Party raised $236,015, the Yukon Liberal Party raised $233,243, the Yukon New Democrats raised $165,817, and the Yukon Green Party raised $5,948.[27] Compared to the 2011 election, this was a drastic increase. In that campaign, the Yukon Party raised $153,892.90, the Yukon Liberal Party raised $71,159.53, the Yukon New Democrats raised $75,616.35, and the Yukon Green Party raised $575. The then-active Yukon First Nations Party raised $1,104.[28] Nonetheless, despite a significant increase in fundraising revenue, all three major parties reported significant campaign deficits in 2016.
Overall, the Yukon Liberals benefited from the largest single contribution, while the Yukon Party benefited from the most corporate donations and the New Democrats from the most individual donations. Of particular interest was that the Yukon Liberal Party in 2016 raised more than five times what it raised collectively between 2011 and 2015. Nearly a quarter of the Liberals' donations came from large donations from mining companies.[29]
Whitehorse Centre Investigation
During the 2016 campaign, Liberal candidate for Whitehorse Centre, Tamara Goeppel, was accused of soliciting proxy ballots from ten homeless people in her riding. Proxy votes, a form of franchise in which voters surrender their vote to another in their stead, are intended for use only by voters who have reason to believe they will be absent from the territory on voting day and advanced polling days.
The Chief Electoral Officer opened an investigation into Goeppel during the campaign, and despite calls to drop Goeppel as a candidate, Liberal Leader Sandy Silver continued to support her candidacy. Goeppel was defeated by New Democrat Leader Liz Hanson on election night.[30]
In February 2017, the Chief Electoral Officer's investigation led to the RCMP charging Goeppel with two counts of “aiding or abetting persons in making proxy applications that were not in accordance with Section 106 of the (Yukon Elections) Act,” and one count of “inducing persons to falsely declare on proxy application that they would be absent from the Yukon during the hours fixed for voting.” If convicted, Goeppel faces a $5,000 fine, up to a year in jail, or both.[31]
Goeppel entered a plea of not guilty in June 2017. Her trial date is not yet determined.[32] She is the first person to be charged under the Yukon Elections Act.[33]
Lawrence Bagnell is a Canadian politician. He served as a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 until 2011, and from 2015 to present.
Dennis G. Fentie, MLA is 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.
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.
Porter Creek Centre is an electoral district which returns a member to the Legislative Assembly of Yukon, Canada. It was created in 2002 out of the Whitehorse ridings of Porter Creek North and Porter Creek South. It encompasses the Whitehorse subdivision of Whistle Bend and part of the subdivision of Porter Creek. It is bordered by the ridings of Porter Creek South, Porter Creek North, and Riverdale North.
Jim Kenyon is a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Porter Creek North in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2011. He is a member of the Yukon Party.
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.
Eric Fairclough is a Canadian politician, who was a Cabinet minister and Leader of the Official Opposition in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. He represented the rural Yukon electoral district of Mayo-Tatchun in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2011 under both the Yukon New Democratic Party and the Liberals. He is also a former Chief of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation.
The 37th general election in Yukon, Canada, took place on October 11, 2011, to return members to the 33rd Yukon Legislative Assembly.
Kevin Barr is a Canadian politician, who served in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2016. He represented the electoral district of Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes as a member of the Yukon New Democratic Party caucus. First elected in the 2011 election, he was defeated in the 2016 election by John Streicker of the Yukon Liberal Party.
Currie Dixon is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 election. He served as a Cabinet minister and represented the electoral district of Copperbelt North as a member of the Yukon Party caucus until 2016.
Wade Istchenko is a Canadian politician, who was elected to in the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 and 2016 elections. A former Cabinet minister, he currently represents the rural Yukon district of Kluane as a member of the opposition Yukon Party caucus.
Patti McLeod is a Canadian politician, who was elected to in the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 election. She represents the electoral district of Watson Lake as a member of the Yukon Party caucus.
Mike Nixon is a Canadian politician, who was elected to in the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the 2011 election. He represented the electoral district of Porter Creek South as a member of the Yukon Party caucus until 2016.
Mountainview is an electoral district which returns a member to the Legislative Assembly of Yukon in Canada. It was created in 2009 out of parts of the former districts of McIntyre-Takhini and Copperbelt. It contains the Whitehorse subdivisions of Granger, Valleyview, McIntyre, and Hillcrest.
John Streicker is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Yukon in the Yukon general election, 2016. He represents the electoral district of Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes as a member of the Yukon Liberal Party.
Richard Mostyn is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Yukon in the 2016 election. He represents the electoral district of Whitehorse West as a member of the Yukon Liberal Party. He is currently the Minister of Highways and Public Works and the Public Service Commission.
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