1978 Yukon general election

1978 Yukon general election
	November 20, 1978
	November 20, 1978
16 seats of the Yukon Legislative Assembly ; 8 seats were needed for a majority
	Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Riding names are listed at the bottom.
Premier before election; None (position established);	Premier after election ; Chris Pearson; Progressive Conservative

The 1978 Yukon general election (28th general election), 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 24th 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.

Hilda Watson, the first woman ever to lead a political party into an election in Canada, was the leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Although the party won the election, Watson herself was defeated in Kluane by Liberal candidate Alice McGuire, and thus did not become government leader. The position of government leader instead went to Chris Pearson.

New Democratic leader Fred Berger was also defeated in his own riding. He remained leader of the party until 1981, when he was succeeded by the party's sole elected MLA, Tony Penikett. Under Penikett's leadership, an MLA who had been elected as an independent in 1978 joined the NDP, and the party won a by-election. With its caucus increased to three members, the NDP had thus supplanted the Liberals as the official opposition by the time of the 1982 election.

Results by party

Party	Party Leader	# of cands	Seats
Party	Party Leader	# of cands	Before	After	% of vote
Progressive Conservative	Hilda Watson	15		11	37.10
Liberal	Iain MacKay	14		2	28.46
Independent		9	16	2	14.17
NDP	Fred Berger	14		1	20.27
Total		52	16	16

Results by riding

Electoral District					Incumbent
Electoral District	PC	Liberal	NDP	Other	Incumbent
Campbell	Don McIntosh 61	Blake Stirling Macdonald 120	Margaret Thomson 65	Robert Fleming 184	new district
Faro	no candidate	no candidate	Stuart McCall 231	Maurice Byblow 361	new district
Hootalinqua	Al Falle 209	Mike Laforet 83	Max Fraser 159	Mack Henry 44	Robert Fleming
Klondike	Meg McCall 152	no candidate	Fred Berger 130	Eleanor Millard 114	Fred Berger
Kluane	Hilda Watson 150	Alice McGuire 188	no candidate	John Livesey 49	Hilda Watson
Mayo	Swede Hanson 95	Gordon McIntyre 84	Alan McDiarmid 82	David Harwood 85	Gordon McIntyre
Old Crow	Grafton Njootli 62	Edith Tizya 29	Robert Bruce 19		new district
Tatchun	Howard Tracey 109	Hugh Netzel 71	Jerry Roberts 83		new district
Watson Lake	Don Taylor 226	Grant Taylor 188	no candidate		Don Taylor
Whitehorse North Centre	Geoff Lattin 153	Dermot Flynn 83	Doug Stephenson 131	Ken McKinnon 141	Ken McKinnon
Whitehorse Porter Creek East	Dan Lang 322	Bill Webber 202	Paul Warner 84		new district
Whitehorse Porter Creek West	Doug Graham 188	Clive Tanner 142	Kathy Horton 60		new district
Whitehorse Riverdale North	Chris Pearson 358	Richard Rotondo 194	Dave Dornian 59		new district
Whitehorse Riverdale South	Margaret Heath 354	Iain MacKay 420	Jim McCullough 113		new district
Whitehorse South Centre	Jack Hibberd 245	Bert Law 197	Ken Krocker 122		Jack Hibberd
Whitehorse West	Anthony Fekete 185	John Watt 200	Tony Penikett 230	Al Omotani 81 Guy Julien 37	Flo Whyard

Member changes

Liberal leader Iain MacKay resigned the party leadership and his seat in the legislature in 1980, and was succeeded in both roles by Ron Veale.[1]

Following Penikett's accession to the leadership of the NDP in 1981, Maurice Byblow, elected as an independent, joined the party.

Jack Hibberd resigned his seat in the legislature on April 15, 1981, after accepting a position as a surgical consultant with a hospital outside of the Yukon. The resulting by-election, held on October 13, was won by New Democrat Roger Kimmerly. Now holding three seats in the legislature, the NDP replaced the Liberals as the Official Opposition.[2]

Robert Fleming joined the Progressive Conservative Party in 1982.

Administrative changes

After the election, four of the elected members in the Progressive Conservative Party, including Chris Pearson, were added to the Executive Committee headed by Commissioner Art Pearson. In October 1979, at the instruction of Jake Epp, minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Commissioner withdrew from direct government administration; Chris Pearson became government leader (equal to premier), added a fifth member of the party caucus, and formed the Executive Council (cabinet), the beginning of responsible government with an elected head of government. Art Pearson resigned as commissioner in protest and was replaced with a new appointee.

References

"Byelections". CPA Activities: The Canadian Scene, Vol. 4, No. 2.
"NDP's by-election win makes it Opposition". The Globe and Mail, October 15, 1981.

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[1] "Byelections". CPA Activities: The Canadian Scene, Vol. 4, No. 2.

[2] "NDP's by-election win makes it Opposition". The Globe and Mail, October 15, 1981.

Elections in Yukon
General elections	Territorial Council: 1900 1903 1905 1907 1909 1912 1915 1917 1920 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1944 1947 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1974 Legislative Assembly: 1978 1982 1985 1989 1992 1996 2000 2002 2006 2011 2016 2021
See also: List of Yukon by-elections