Voting opens in Yukon Party leadership race

It's been three and a half years since the Liberals ended nearly a decade and a half of Yukon Party rule. On Friday, Yukon Party members began voting to choose a leader to succeed former premier Darrell Pasloski.

Pasloski stepped down as leader on election night in 2016 after losing his Mountainview seat to Liberal Jeanie Dendys in a close three-way race. Days later, the party named Pelly-Nisutlin MLA Stacey Hassard interim leader.

Yukon Party officials say more than 1,000 new members have signed up during the leadership race. More than 1,600 members are eligible to cast votes.

The party will use a preferential ballot system, meaning voters will rank candidates in order of preference. If nobody wins an immediate majority, the second place votes will be calculated to determine a winner. Results are expected around 8 p.m. PT on May 23.

Here are the three candidates for Yukon Party leader, in alphabetical order.

Linda Benoit

Benoit is a former party staffer who worked in the governments of Pasloski and Dennis Fentie. She also managed the campaign of federal Conservative candidate Jonas Smith, who fell just short of knocking off Liberal MP Larry Bagnell in the last federal election.

Benoit was born and raised in Faro. She runs an IT-bookkeeping firm and runs a construction company in Whitehorse. She wants to see the Yukon government improve its procurement practices to make life easier for local business, and to improve the outlook for mineral exploration by reducing permitting timelines.

She also wants to see the territory cut its diesel and LNG consumption by building more hydroelectric capacity. Benoit also wants the Yukon Party to make peace, as it were, with carbon pricing.

"I'm not going to waste my time fighting the federal government on a carbon tax," she said. "It is what it is. It's the law now." Instead, Benoit said efforts would be better spent negotiating more exemptions, such as one for home heating fuel.

Benoit also wants to revisit some of the Liberal government's changes to school curriculums. And, she said, the healthcare system needs to do a better job offering services to people who lack access to a family doctor.

Brad Cathers

Later this year, Cathers will become the longest-sitting MLA in Yukon history. He's held the riding of Lake Laberge since November of 2002. He's also held several cabinet portfolios, including health and social services, justice, community services and energy, mines and resources.

Cathers also spent nearly two years as an independent MLA after resigning from cabinet over the Fentie government's attempted privatization of Yukon Energy.

Cathers said the main job of the government will be to help the private sector bounce back from the recession caused by COVID-19. To do that, Cathers said he wants to look at ways to encourage more local production in the Yukon: not just of food, but of some consumer goods as well. He proposes a tax credit for goods manufactured in the territory.

"As a result of the disruptions related to the pandemic... people are starting to become more aware of the fact of just how many of the goods that we purchase in in our daily lives are being shipped from thousands of miles away," he said.

Cathers said he remains opposed to the carbon tax. He also wants to reduce healthcare wait times and permitting timelines for resource projects. And he promises to bring back the premier's community tour, where the government travels to each community annually to talk about local issues.

Currie Dixon

Dixon didn't run in the 2016 election, but he didn't sit it out either, serving as the party's campaign chair. In 2011, he knocked off former Liberal leader Arthur Mitchell in Copperbelt North. He served a term in Darrell Pasloski's cabinet, holding the environment and economic development portfolios, and later community services.

Dixon then went back to school, earning a master's degree in political science from the University of Northern British Columbia with a focus on First Nations governance and economic development, before working in the mining industry.

Instead of specific policies, Dixon said he would, as leader, undertake a broad platform development process, featuring input from "stakeholder groups and experts."

Dixon said the party should still value fiscal conservatism, resource development and opposition to carbon pricing. But he said it also needs to find ways to attract new members.

"We could be a more inclusive party so that new or non-traditional supporters that share our values can see themselves in the Yukon Party," he said. "I think we should be delving into policy areas that we haven't historically been known for such as early childhood learning or mental health."