A former Conservative Yukon MP who handcuffed a Whitehorse resident he caught cutting out his name from his campaign signs late at night a decade ago intends on making another run for the federal seat under Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada.
“Ten years provides us a tremendous opportunity through maturity and growth and learning,” Ryan Leef said.
“My days of jumping out of the bushes are long over.”
Leef, who announced his intentions on Facebook, told the News by phone on Feb. 24 that he has submitted his paperwork to seek the Yukon nomination for the Conservatives.
The lifelong runner and former mixed-martial-arts fighter has worked in a multitude of careers across the region. What he enjoys most about the territory is the “vast open wilderness and the great outdoors.”
Leef was a candidate for the Conservatives in 2015 when he handcuffed someone he found defacing his signs. After serving in office from May 2011 to August 2015, Leef lost the seat, and the Conservatives dropped to Official Opposition status.
Leef used to have a treadmill and workout gear including a punching bag and mats, as well as pictures and maps of the Yukon, posted in his parliamentary office. At the time, Mark Critch of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes did a skit with Leef in his office.
Leef commented on Poilievre, who he described as an old colleague and friend. Both politicians were MPs under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
“The one thing I can say that struck me the most was (Poilievre’s) inquisitive nature about the territory, about the North, about the Arctic, about my home and the people of the Yukon,” Leef said.
“He was always curious, and he was always asking questions.”
During a September 2023 campaign-style rally in Whitehorse, Poilievre gave Leef a shoutout. Poilievre told the crowd about Leef’s in-office “training studio” and called him a “wonderful guy” and a “man of great common sense.”
Right now, Leef is seriously focused on supporting the Yukon Conservative movement and his ground game.
Leef believes the Yukon connects with people who embrace the territory with a full appreciation for the hub in Whitehorse and what goes on across rural, remote communities. From Herschel Island in the Beaufort Sea to the Yukon-B.C. border, he said he has travelled from corner to corner of the Yukon.
“I think I can really relate to Yukoners on a really wide and diverse spectrum,” he said.
As a self-described “fiscal Conservative,” Leef said it’s the party’s focus on fiscal responsibility that primarily draws him in. The economy is the biggest challenge facing the territory and the country, and “regaining fiscal strength” is Leef’s biggest priority.
“When we are in good fiscal shape, then we are far, far better to be the Canadians that we are known to be: generous, caring, outwardly thinking,” he said. He added that means locally, across Canada and around the world.
“But without a strong fiscal framework and healthy fiscal position, we spiral.”
The Yukon is regarded a swing riding. It went from blue to red in 2015.
With a close race in 2021, Brendan Hanley of the Liberal Party of Canada took the Yukon seat with 6,471 votes. Conservative Barbara Dunlop came in next with 5,096 votes. Lisa Vollans-Leduc of the NDP got 4,354 votes. Independent Jonas Smith, who was booted as the Conservative candidate for his vaccine stance, followed up with 2,639 votes. Lenore Morris of the Green Party received 846 votes, and 142 ballots were rejected.
Leef realized he needed to step up when he hadn’t heard of another Yukon Conservative candidate for the upcoming federal elections, which have yet to be declared but could come as soon as March. (Ted Laking previously set out to be the Conservative candidate for Yukon MP but has since pivoted to territorial politics under the Yukon Party.)
“I've made this my home for 40 years. I'll make it my home till I die. I have the skill and the interest and the knowledge and I have the support of people,” Leef said.
“That's why I stepped forward this time.”
Leef labelled the Conservatives as the party of consistency. He said the party has held the same values as it had his last run around the mill. For example, Leef indicated the Liberals are “walking away” from the carbon tax, which the Conservatives have railed against.
“We don't wander from election cycle to election cycle, blowing in the wind,” he said.
"What's different today is obviously different times, different urgencies sitting on our doorstep.”
And Poilievre has a “different layer of connection with the Canadian public,” per Leef.
Leef is confident in Poilievre’s ability to deal with Canada-U.S. relations and confront U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I think he will be able to face Donald Trump amicably, but with a position of strength and seriousness. And that's absolutely what we need,” Leef said.
“The other strength of both the Conservatives and, under Pierre's leadership, the plan he has is dealing with the nine years of threat and risk that we face from government here in this country.”
Leef is trying to avoid being distracted by Trump’s tariff threats and the “nonsensical concept” that Canada would become the 51st state. He won’t forget the reason “we’re in the position we’re in in the first place, which is the nine years of mismanagement of a Liberal government.”
As for whether the country is “broken” or if it’s “Canada First,” Leef believes both can be true.
“We are broken in the sense of government management. Right now, Canada is still very much a strong and proud nation, and I'm a strong patriot, and no individual or no government will ever shape my view of my nation or my pride in it, nor should it shape anybody else's view or sense of pride in their country,” he said.
To that end, Leef noted, Canada is a sovereign, independent nation.
“When we talk about ‘Canada First,’ it means that we have to be honest about where we're at,” he said.
“I think it means acknowledging all the challenges that we have, where we're at right now as a country, and where we can be in the future, and putting our interests first.”
— With files from Maura Forrest
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
