Yukon Party leader blasts premier's new 'left-wing coalition government'

Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon didn't hold back when talking about Premier Sandy Silver's deal with the NDP to prop up a Liberal minority government.

"It's clear that Sandy Silver and the Liberals were so desperate for power that abandoning their principles was less of a concern for them. So congratulations to the NDP for taking advantage of a weakened and desperate Liberal Party," said Dixon at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

"This is the most left-wing political agenda that this territory has ever seen."

The opposition leader's comments came a day after Silver held his own news conference alongside NDP Leader Kate White. 

Silver and White announced that their parties had signed an agreement to work together and keep Silver in power, at least until 2023. In exchange, the Liberals agreed to support a list of NDP campaign promises.

The Liberals and Yukon Party each won eight seats in the legislative assembly in this month's election, while the NDP won the remaining three. As the incumbent premier, Silver announced the following week that he would form a government, and talk to the other parties.

Dixon complained last week that he hadn't heard a peep from Silver since voting day, and suggested the Liberals were instead courting the NDP. Turns out, he was right.

"I'm certainly not surprised that they made an agreement. I am surprised, though, at the nature of the agreement," Dixon said.

"This is essentially the NDP's full platform." 

Dixon said his party also met with the NDP after the election, to see if they might find common ground and work together.

No luck, he said, as "we felt that we were too far apart to arrive at anything." 

Silver 'sold the farm,' Dixon says

The Liberal-NDP agreement commits Silver's government to a number of NDP priorities including: a more ambitious greenhouse gas emission-reduction target, an increase in the minimum wage, a publicly-funded universal dental plan and a cap on residential rent increases to match the rate of inflation.

White and Silver insist that it's not a formal coalition, as no NDP MLAs will be in Silver's cabinet. 

But Dixon repeatedly referred to it on Thursday as a "left-wing coalition government," and suggested that a desperate, power-hungry Silver had "sold the farm" by adopting an agenda the Liberals had vigourously campaigned against just weeks before. 

"Never before has a party that's so clearly lost the election — with the fewest seats, the fewest votes, and a clear rejection of the party's agenda — then had the ability to turn around and implement their agenda and their platform after the election," Dixon said, referring to the NDP.

"We have no idea how much any of this will cost. Neither do the Liberals. And so they've signed on and agreed to all of this without having a clue how we're all going to pay for it."

Silver said on Thursday that his new cabinet would be sworn in on Monday, but has not set a date for the next sitting of the Legislative Assembly.