The is a conservative political party in the
Yukon Territory of
Canada .
The party was founded in
1978 as the , and was elected as the territory's first party-based government in
1979 under the leadership of
Chris Pearson .
The Progressive Conservative party was founded in 1978 with
Hilda Watson as its first leader. Watson had been a member of the terriorial
Legislature since
1970 . However, when she was unable to win a seat in the 1978 election, she resigned and
Chris Pearson became leader of the party as well as the government.
The Progressive Conservatives were defeated in
1985 by the
Yukon New Democratic Party (NDP) led by
Tony Penikett . With
Brian Mulroney 's
Federal Progressive Conservative government's increasing unpopularity, the Yukon Progressive Conservatives decided to sever their relations with the federal
Tory party, and renamed themselves the "Yukon Party" prior to the
1992 general election.
After seven years in power, the NDP was defeated in 1992 and the Yukon Party's
John Ostashek became
Premier of Yukon. His government became very unpopular by increasing taxes and cutting services. Ostashek was voted out of office in
1996 after only one term. The Yukon Party won only three seats, 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 it 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
November 4 ,
2002 , in an effort to regain her majority, but the early election call backfired badly.
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 5 for the NDP. The Liberals were reduced to a single seat. Fentie became the first Yukon Premier from a rural riding.
As of
22 November 2005 , the Yukon Party holds 11 seats in the
Yukon Legislative Assembly . The Yukon New Democrats have 5, the Yukon Liberals have 2.
