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NDP's Kate White launches re election campaign in Takhini Kopper King

Takhini-Kopper King MLA Kate White has announced her plans to run for re-election in the 2016 territorial election.

Takhini-Kopper King MLA Kate White has announced her plans to run for re-election in the 2016 territorial election.

White is the first NDP MLA to confirm her intentions ahead of this year’s election, which must be held by October.

Speaking in front of the Takhini mobile home park on Monday, White said she plans to stay the course she’s been on for the last four years.

“I’m going to keep on talking to people, asking them what needs to change and then trying to figure out how I can help with that.”

White was elected for the first time in 2011, after an unsuccessful campaign in Porter Creek Centre in 2006, when she was just 28.

Currently, she acts as the Opposition’s housing and environment critic. She has criticized the government for failing to take “meaningful action” on climate change, and has pushed for better protection of mobile home owners and for more progress on affordable housing.

White said none of the Takhini-Kopper King candidates actually lived in the riding during the last election in 2011. But after she won, she decided to change that.

“I gave myself a year and a half deadline to be in the neighbourhood, and I bought a house (in the riding) before the end of November in 2012.”

She said she’s also visited every Yukon community except Old Crow in the last four years.

In recent months, the Yukon Liberals have been churning out new potential candidates. And last week, the News reported that two recent polls suggest the Liberals are leading the other parties.

But White seems unperturbed.

“I think it’s important to realize that the Liberals right now are riding the wave of the federal election, and I think that’s totally fair,” she said.

NDP Leader Liz Hanson has yet to confirm that she will run for re-election, but party spokesperson Mike Fancie said there will likely be “no surprises on that front.”