Yukon Party

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.

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.[1]

• Chris Young 1991
• John Ostashek 1991–2000
• Peter Jenkins 2000–2002 (interim)
• Dennis Fentie 2002–2011
• Darrell Pasloski 2011–2016[7]
• Stacey Hassard 2016–2020 (interim)
• Currie Dixon 2020–Present

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

• Yukon Party