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Author Topic: Yukon election Oct 10
Dana Larsen
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posted 17 September 2006 11:17 AM      Profile for Dana Larsen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Yukon elections are coming up.

Any thoughts?

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2006/09/11/1825180-sun.html

Mon, September 11, 2006

Yukon election set

By CP

WHITEHORSE -- Premier Dennis Fentie has announced Yukoners will head to the polls on Oct. 10, even though the territory's NDP leader is still in hospital recuperating from cancer treatment.

Fentie announced the voting day Friday during a business luncheon in which he reflected on the work his Yukon Party has done over its almost four-year mandate.

But NDP Leader Todd Hardy, speaking from his hospital room, said he was disappointed by Fentie's decision to drop the writ.

He said his doctors told him Thursday his leukemia is in full remission, meaning he will likely be able to participate in the last half of the campaign.

Hardy said Fentie visited him in the hospital and he "indicated to me and the Yukon public that he would have liked to see every leader fully participatory for the upcoming election.

"However, it's his decision. I've never asked him for anything, and I never will."

Fentie said his visit to Hardy only confirmed that the other political leader may not be prepared to fight a campaign no matter when the writ was dropped.


From: Vancouver | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
hatman
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posted 17 September 2006 12:16 PM      Profile for hatman     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Yukon is a split territory 3-ways. Too early to tell what will happen there.
From: Ottawa South | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 19 September 2006 09:36 AM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Yukon has quite possibly the most dysfuctional electoral system in Canada. The territory just seems to be too small to maintain an political party system... at least under FPTP.

I mean, listen to this.

quote:
A Yukoner can understand why outsiders might need a program to track the territory's mercurial political scene. In the past six years alone, politicians changing their party affiliations have triggered the fall of the Liberal government to a Yukon Party whose leader crossed the floor himself just months earlier. They shifted the Official Opposition status from the New Democrats to the Liberals. And they chopped the Yukon Party government from majority to minority.

Dennis Fentie's Yukon Party vaulted into a majority government in 2002, when then-premier Pat Duncan called a snap election after her Liberals slipped to minority status with a series of defections.

Fentie's party sat firmly in place with 12 seats in the 18-seat legislature. The NDP formed the Official Opposition with five seats, while the Liberals were pounded at the polling station, falling from government to having a lone member in the House: Duncan herself.

Don Roberts was one of three MLAs to leave the governing Liberal party in May 2002.
By the time the legislature was dissolved for this election, however, the Yukon Party government had shrunk to a minority (nine MLAs, including the Speaker), the Liberals formed the Opposition with four seats and the NDP, with three seats, had third-party status. Two MLAs, both former senior cabinet ministers, were sitting as Independents.


What the hell?

quote:
"I believe the party system we have is broken, big time," said Don Roberts, who belongs to a group working for electoral reform in the territory. Roberts himself is a former Liberal health minister who left the party while it was still in power in 2002 to sit as an Independent.

Floor crossing, it seems, is a bit of a political sport in the Yukon.


Yukon Votes feature

Based on that history, I predict the NDP will win a minority government with 7 seats and 32% of the popular vote, having won the riding of Vintut Gwitchen by one vote. The liberal party will win 6 seats with 35% of the popular vote, and the Yukon Party will win 5 seats with 33% of the vote.

After one New Democrat crosses the floor to sit as an independant, and another crosses the floor to sit as in the Yukon caucus, all three parties claim to be the legitimate governing party of the Yukon.

Civil War ensues.


From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 20 September 2006 01:35 AM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
During which, Sam McGee will once again be tragically cremated.

Then revived,

And then elected as a Yukon Liberal, who will cross the floor to sit as a...


From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 20 September 2006 09:55 AM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
...Green.
From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
Québécois in the North
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posted 21 September 2006 02:52 PM      Profile for Québécois in the North     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The british parlimentary system may not be a good system for a place like Yukon -- in fact it's a bad system anyways, but that's another debate.

But the "Consensus government" system in use in the NWT and Nunavut has its failures too.

For those unfamiliar with this system, it is a party-less regime in which all MLAs are elected as independents in their home-riding (usually 2000 constitutents per riding). Once we've picked all the MLAs (here in the NWT, we've got 19 of them), they have a first meeting and, just like the coop members at the AGM, the elected few vote themselves a government. First a Speaker is elected, then the premier, then the cabinet ministers (there are rules on the geographical distribution of the cabinet. Like Yellowknife cannot have more than 3 ministers. One in Hay River...). Once this is done, the premier distributes the portfolios to his newly formed cabinet and Legislature opens.

It is a somewhat strange government that is always in a minority position, but doesn't have an organized opposition. There is no party line, but for the cabinet.

It is under this odd system that the NWT has managed to get an unelected premier. Since there was no opposition in his riding of Weledeh -- It's my riding! -- Joe Handley was acclaimed. Then when the MLAs convened to form the government, he was the only one interested in the premier job. So he was acclaimed again.

He didn't had to convince anybody to rule the territory, he just grabbed the job nobody wanted. And they call this consensus.


From: Yellowknife | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 21 September 2006 05:55 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The main problem with so-called "consensus" government is that you can't vote a government out, only your constituency MLA (and only if it's not an acclamation).
From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 25 September 2006 10:56 PM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's interesting the N.D.P is either ahead or tied in the polls, but based on two minor pieces of evidence, they appear to be the least organized:
1.They were the last of the three parties to fill out their candidate slate.
2.They are the only one of the three parties not to have their website up yet.

From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 25 September 2006 11:13 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, that kind of thing will happen when your leader is fighting a serious disease.

It was beyond disgusting that Fentie called the election when he knew the condition of the NDP leader.


From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 29 September 2006 02:35 PM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
N.D.P website is up:
http://www.yukonndp.ca/

From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 02 October 2006 03:05 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Trendlines in the Yukon, riding by riding polling

I'm still confused.... using this site and the Wikipedia site I tried to come up with a projection.

According to trendlines, the standings were LIB 7, NDP 5, YP 5, IND* 1 in August. Since then polls in 5 ridings were conducted, showing one swing from LIB to NDP and another from LIB to YP. Additionally, there is no independent running in MacIntyre-Takhini, where the phantom Indy leads, and the Liberal is polling second. So that is a swing from IND to LIB. Which leaves the standings at...

YUK - 6 (+1 since Aug)
NDP - 6 (+1)
LIB - 6 (-1)
IND - 0 (-1)

I have to say I've never seen THAT before.

[ 02 October 2006: Message edited by: West Coast Greeny ]

[ 02 October 2006: Message edited by: West Coast Greeny ]


From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 02 October 2006 03:30 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Uh, these guys aren't entirely non-partisan I should warn....
From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
glasstech
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posted 02 October 2006 06:07 PM      Profile for glasstech     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"Uh, these guys aren't entirely non-partisan I should warn.... "

You should put that statment in the joke column!


From: Whitehorse, Yukon | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
hatman
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posted 02 October 2006 09:59 PM      Profile for hatman     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Im not sure how these trendlines people can get acurrate riding by riding polls in the Yukon. Most ridings will have far less than 1000 voters in them. I know as a pollster myself, it can be hard to get people to do polls on the phone. If they called everybody in a riding, they'd get no more than 20 surveys done, probably a lot less. That's not a good sample size for anything.
From: Ottawa South | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 10 October 2006 10:40 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Final results in seats:

Yukon Party:10

Liberals:5

NDP:3

Great. Wonderfully humane people, those Yukoners. They actually fucking REWARDED Fentie for calling an election when the Yukon NDP leader was in the hospital with leukemia.
Surprised they didn't nominate Fentie for the bleedin' Nobel Peace Prize while they were at it.

Beyond sickening that the bastard got away with it.

For shame, Yukoners.


From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Stockholm
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posted 11 October 2006 05:53 AM      Profile for Stockholm     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
To be fair (not that I want to be fair), the government in the Yukon has a 4 year term and an election HAD to be called by lete this month, so at most the election could have been delayed a month.
From: Toronto | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
Gollygee
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posted 11 October 2006 07:24 AM      Profile for Gollygee        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Re the critics of FPTP in the 3 territories. Are current districts arranged in part to give more weight to native participation? (at least that used to be the situation and perhpas no longer applies) Wouldn't a PR system diminish native influence?

We lived and worked in Norman Wells for one school season back in the mid 80's. There wasn't an election but there was the issue of trying to ensure natives in govt positions didn't get pushed aside by influx of other Canadians.

[ 11 October 2006: Message edited by: Gollygee ]


From: Creston, BC | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Curmudgeon
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posted 11 October 2006 03:16 PM      Profile for Curmudgeon     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What the frac happened?

The NDP was polling in the high 30s, reaching a high of 43% in an August 2005 poll!

To me the real election results are -
Yukon Party - 9
NDP - 7
Liberals - 2

Why?
Dennis Fentie
Eric Fairclough
Gary McRobb
Darius Elias (Son of Yukon NDP MLA Norma Kassi 1985-1992)

All four are former New Democrats. 3 former NDP MLAs.
Maybe they were crappy politicians ... but imagine if we had nominated and elected candidates who would not switch parties.
BECAUSE the encumbant factor sure seems to have helped the 3 who were MLAs at the first election after they switched.

The #1 issue in my eyes was (or at least should have been the environment)
You needed a strong voice against GWBush's plan to drill in the arctic wildlife refuge which borders Northern Yukon. Also there pipelines plans through the Yukon.


From: I'm sorry - I was probably drunk when I wrote this | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged
Gollygee
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posted 11 October 2006 05:13 PM      Profile for Gollygee        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Curmudgeon:
.

The #1 issue in my eyes was (or at least should have been the environment)
You needed a strong voice against GWBush's plan to drill in the arctic wildlife refuge which borders Northern Yukon. Also there pipelines plans through the Yukon.


Who best to judge that but the natives who live in the area and not those of us who preach from afar? The northern riding is overwhelmingly native and I an respect that they want to be masters of their own fate. Unfortunately many elected native leaders in the Alaska side are also pro drilling on the refuge. I agree this is unfortunate but I'm not certain they want to be preached to from Toronto or from here in southern B.C. where we have exploited our own resouces and don't lack the amenities of life.


From: Creston, BC | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 11 October 2006 08:19 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Stockholm:
To be fair (not that I want to be fair), the government in the Yukon has a 4 year term and an election HAD to be called by lete this month, so at most the election could have been delayed a month.

Well yeah, but the voters didn't have to reward Fentie for this by giving him another majority and making the right-wing Liberals the official opposition.


From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Aristotleded24
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posted 11 October 2006 08:30 PM      Profile for Aristotleded24   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Burch:
Well yeah, but the voters didn't have to reward Fentie for this by giving him another majority and making the right-wing Liberals the official opposition.

To be fair, Fentne did lose seats, and has a less secure majority than he had before.


From: Winnipeg | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 12 October 2006 06:51 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Fentie did lose seats from the previous election(although he gained one from dissolution)but, unfortunately, it looks as if the Yukon has now undergone a significant rightward political realignment which may not be reversed for years.

Why does it now appear that Yukoners actually WANT to limit their choices of government to the Yukon Party and, of all others, the Liberals?


From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
glasstech
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posted 12 October 2006 06:57 PM      Profile for glasstech     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
With 10 seats for The yukon Party and 8 oppositions menbers thing are not secure for Fentie. One of the group has to be Speaker which drops the majority to one! With the rate these guys have been crossing the floor things might not last very long.
You also must for give Yukoners for the way they voted. When times are good, and they are very good right now, it's hard to convince people to challenge the status quo.
Also, at the rate sitting Cabnet members shoot themselves in the foot up here, this could be very short I hope.

From: Whitehorse, Yukon | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Ken Burch
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posted 12 October 2006 11:55 PM      Profile for Ken Burch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Did the former NDP'ers who crossed the floor to sit as Liberals hold their ridings in this election?
From: A seedy truckstop on the Information Superhighway | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Robo
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posted 13 October 2006 12:33 PM      Profile for Robo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Burch:
Did the former NDP'ers who crossed the floor to sit as Liberals hold their ridings in this election?

Yes, both of them did get elected as Liberals. As well, the Yukon Party MLA who ran as a New Democrat this time got re-elected as a New Democrat.


From: East York | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged
Québécois in the North
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posted 13 October 2006 01:27 PM      Profile for Québécois in the North     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't know much about Yukon, but I certainly know the situation in the NWT. I assume it's not that different.

Form my perspective, people in the North don't vote for the party, they vote for the man.

If these MLA's won, it's probably not because of their political allegiance, rather than their hability at convincing voters that they are good persons.

You know, up here the ridings have a maximum of 1000 constitutents. A candidate can and HAS TO meet every constitutents they are solliciting. That's how you win.

There are also specefic particularities in the remote ridings. Take Nunakput in the NWT. It encompasses four very distinct communities: Tuktoyaktuk, Paulatuk, Uluhaktok and Sachs Harbour. Each of these communities have less than 800 residents and are miles apart of each other. Usually there is one candidate from each communities and the voters choose the one they know personally, and that's the one from their home-town. So it's always the guy from Tuk who wins, cuz, well, that's the biggest of the four communities...

Maybe it's not like that in the Yukon. I dunno. But I would suggest the average southern NDPer reading this forum to put his party-driven political analysis on the shelve for a bit and start seing these results in a more human scale fashion.

I think Fentie has done a bad job last time. The devolution deal he got is a piece of crap and now Yukonners are stuck with it. But I trust the Yukon voters and if they re-elected the guy it must be for a good reason.


From: Yellowknife | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Gollygee
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posted 13 October 2006 03:33 PM      Profile for Gollygee        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
That's a good perspective on voting. How does party politics play into a native riding of 150 total votes in the northern Yukon territory? Outside of Whitehorse most voters probably know the candidates well. The voting might actually be based on more of a reality than those of us whohaved party affiliations.
From: Creston, BC | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 13 October 2006 06:01 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Yukon has Party politics. The NWT and Nunavut don't. You can get rid of the government by voting them out in the Yukon, and Yukoners have on many occasions since the introduction of Party politics. The Dennis Fentie government is in fact the first government to be re-elected since 1989. There have been no independents elected since 1992.
From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
glasstech
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posted 13 October 2006 06:14 PM      Profile for glasstech     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We may have party politics here but that means relatively little. Most people vote for the person not the party. How else can you explain three floor crossers all being re-elected?
In my riding I had a choice between dumb, dumber and the incumbent theif.
Why don't they put a box marked none of the above on the ballot? Too many people would vote for him/her.

From: Whitehorse, Yukon | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 13 October 2006 10:17 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yes the person is important, largly because of the smaller constituencies, especially outside of Whitehorse. But if people want to vote out a government, the party is more important.
From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Disgusted
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posted 16 October 2006 12:13 PM      Profile for Disgusted        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I agree with Policywonk. People tend to vote for the devil they know. Which is probably why Fentie rewon his Watson Lake riding, since, despite many promises and hopes of a boom there, not much has happened since he became "premier". Watson Lake has lost both mining and logging as significant inputs to the economy, and locals want Fentie to make a miracle happen there. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

There were some interesting folks running for office this time, in particular Elivs Presley ("Tagish Elvis"), an artist, singer and musician (he IS Elvis, he says), thorn in the side of the courts and RCMP, subject of a documentary ("The Elvis Project"), and definitely one of our colourful five percent. But, he came in fourth in his riding, running as an independent. Better luck next time maybe.

There was also Kevin Barr running for office as an NDPer, who is active in community affairs as well as being a terrific musician (check out the Undertakin' Daddies). Alas, he also lost to the incumbent, but not by much.

I think people here were willing to give Fentie's government another chance, but I wouldn't expect the Yukon Party to do as well next time around unless he can pull off some economic miracles without obvious environmental destruction.

The native (aboriginal) population is not too happy with his treatment of their concerns, however.

This is an interesting place to live. We have the reddest of the rednecks and the greenest of the greenies here, with everything in between. There are lots of smart and talented people here with diverse backgrounds. All of which makes for interesting politics!


From: Yukon | Registered: Mar 2006  |  IP: Logged
jester
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posted 21 October 2006 09:46 AM      Profile for jester        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Whatever happened to Tony Pennikett? He once cobbled an NDP government together.He used to walk to work at the government building but after importing NDP apparatchiks from the defeated Sask government for plum Yukon jobs,the local ire made walking a risky venture.

Tony probably did the right thing by bringing in expertise not available locally but an incompetent local is preferable to a competent outsider in the eye of the voter.


From: Against stupidity, the Gods themselves contend in vain | Registered: Jan 2006  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 22 October 2006 03:15 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yup, Tony Penikett was so unpopular he was re-elected with a majority. So much for cobbling together an NDP government.
From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
jester
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posted 22 October 2006 09:02 PM      Profile for jester        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't think he was unpopular.He was used to stumping about the territory as an ordinary guy and when elected,he discovered that the constraints of his position made walking to work untenable.Too many demands on his time I suppose.

While the NDP did gain a majority and made party politics a fixture,the influx of outsider social engineers was not appreciated by independent minded Yukoners.


From: Against stupidity, the Gods themselves contend in vain | Registered: Jan 2006  |  IP: Logged

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