Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon, who heads the territory’s Official Opposition, is ready for a change in territorial government and a local politician is helping Dixon’s party spawn its election platform ahead of the next territorial elections.
Dixon previously confirmed that he will lead the Yukon Party through the next territorial elections. He announced via party press release that he will run as the Yukon Party candidate to stay on as MLA for the riding of Copperbelt North in the next territorial elections, which have yet to be declared.
The upcoming territorial elections are legislated to occur on or before Nov. 3, 2025.
Copperbelt North is the electoral district Dixon presently represents.
The Yukon Party’s constitution doesn’t mandate its party leader to seek their riding nomination through the same process that other hopeful candidates must follow.
During a Dec. 10 year-end interview, Dixon hinted that his party will be revealing candidates — both incumbent and new — throughout the early part of 2025 as they gear up for the elections.
Dixon said one or two current Yukon Party MLAs won’t be seeking re-election but declined to say who will be doing what.
So far, the News has confirmed another current Yukon Party MLA and a former city councillor who is no stranger to the party have put forward their intentions to be Yukon Party candidates in the next elections.
Whitehorse Coun. Ted Laking didn’t go for another term on city council in the October 2024 municipal elections or as president of the Association of Yukon Communities, commonly known as AYC. Instead, he pivoted from making a bid for the federal Conservative nomination to territorial politics in a move driven by what he considers pressing issues at the territorial level.
Laking is currently leading consultations on developing the Yukon Party’s election platform, according to a Yukon Party email sent to party members.
During his terms as city councillor and AYC head, Laking did contract work for the Yukon Party. The Yukon government’s contract registry shows Laking provided research services in 2022 and 2023 and access-to-information documentation and cataloguing in 2022.
Laking was the Yukon Party campaign manager for the 2021 territorial elections and chief of staff from 2016 to 2021.
From 2010 to 2015, Laking was a political advisor to the former Stephen Harper government under the federal Conservative Party of Canada, including communications director for the federal environment minister.
Scott Kent, who is now the Yukon Party MLA for Copperbelt South, will be putting his name forward again for the Yukon Party nomination to represent the riding for another term once an election is called.
Kent has served from April 17, 2000, to Nov. 3, 2002, and October 11, 2011, to today, as noted in his biography on the Yukon Legislative Assembly’s website. He has been a cabinet minister under the former Yukon Party government and previously represented the Riverdale North riding.
Kent is the caucus critic for the departments of Education, Highways and Public Works and Energy, Mines and Resources.
Kent, who made his intentions known via a press release on June 4, 2024, said at the time that his 12-year-old son won’t see the same quality of life Kent did while growing up due to a “severe affordability crisis” affecting the territory today.
The release states Kent moved to the Yukon from Saskatchewan with his family in 1973. He finished high school in the territory. He is devoted to “helping his constituents navigate the current government’s mired policies, poor communication and lack of sound decision-making.”
There have been no riding nominations opened yet, ahead of the territorial elections.
As noted in Kent's release, Yukon Party MLAs, with the exception of the party leader, must get their respective riding’s nomination to be a candidate. The party’s nomination process is determined by the Yukon Party Council made up of the Yukon Party executive, elected representatives of the legislature and Electoral District Association, or EDA, presidents.
The party’s rules lay out that only party members can seek nomination as a candidate.
The party’s press release indicates further nomination processes under the Yukon Party will be put out via local media and electronically to party members, per the party’s own rules.
Dixon told the News that he believes his party is well-positioned to offer Yukoners a “change from the status quo.”
“We think that we've had a good look at what four years of Liberal-NDP government looks like, and we know the Yukon Party is the only party that's positioned to offer real change from what we see right now,” he said.
The minority Yukon Liberal Party government is being propped up by the Yukon NDP through a confidence and supply deal, often called CASA. The Liberals and the Yukon Party have eight MLAs apiece, while the NDP has three.
The Yukon Party's press release suggests the Liberals and Yukon New Democrats haven’t been meaningfully engaging or providing positive results for residents and businesses.
Dixon, a born-and-raised Yukoner, is married with two young children. He brings experience from the public and private sectors, with a “lifelong commitment” to the territory’s well-being and a “fierce dedication” to the community and his constituents, per the press release.
Dixon was first elected to the legislature in the 2011 territorial elections. He served from Oct. 11, 2011, to Nov. 6, 2016, and again from April 12, 2021, to present, according to his biography on the Yukon Legislative Assembly’s website. The websites indicates that when the Yukon Party was in power, Dixon held the roles of minister of Environment, Economic Development, Community Services and the Public Service Commission.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com