MLA Brad Cathers joins Yukon Party leadership race

The Yukon Party leadership race is heating up, with MLA Brad Cathers now a declared candidate.

The Lake Laberge MLA announced on Thursday that he was running to lead the current opposition party. He's the second to enter the race, after former MLA Currie Dixon jumped in last month.

The party's leadership election is set for May 23, 2020. MLA Stacey Hassard has been the party's interim leader since 2016.

"Experience matters," said Cathers, who was first elected MLA in 2002 and re-elected three times since. He held several cabinet portfolios in the governments of then-premiers Darrell Pasloski and Dennis Fentie.

"My work as an MLA and as a minister stands up well next to anyone's. I have a strong track record of delivering results."

In a brief speech in Whitehorse on Thursday, Cathers said he would lead a "caring, fiscally conservative government" if his party wins the next election. Later in the speech, he tweaked that slightly and promised a "caring, fiscally responsible government."

He said he wants to diversify Yukon's economy, build the agriculture sector, and protect property rights. He also promised to cut red tape for business.

Cathers said health care is another of his priorities, and he promised to increase funding to the Yukon Hospital Corporation, and boost emergency services in rural communities.

Pledges to run again, even if not leader

Cathers, who worked in tourism before politics, talked in his speech about growing up in Yukon and living off-grid near Lake Laberge as a child. 

He also took some shots at Premier Sandy Silver's Liberal government, calling it "overly focused on photo ops and platitudes.

"They have shown a lack of capacity to govern," said Cathers.

Cathers also pledged to run for re-election even if Dixon wins the party leadership. He called Dixon a friend, and said a leadership race is good for the party's health.  

Cathers has had a solid hold on his Lake Laberge seat, winning four elections there by wide margins.

But he hasn't been a die-hard Yukon Party stalwart — in 2009, he quit the party to sit as an Independent after a spat with Fentie. Cathers called the then-premier "unnecessarily belligerent and confrontational," and urged Fentie to step down.

Cathers returned to the Yukon Party caucus in 2011, after Fentie announced he wouldn't seek re-election later that year.