With a recent by-election in Whitehorse, and the time dwindling away from the Yukon Party's current mandate, a general election is coming. The Yukon Party, the Yukon Liberal Party, and Yukon New Democratic Party all could very well win in 2011, just a sign of how fragile the political landscape is in the territory.As of today, the Yukon Party is on thin ice. While polling is few and far between, the most recent from July 2010 has the Yukon Party is last place with 22% (-19%), the NDP in second with 26% (+2%), and the Liberals in first with 39% (+5%). The remaining 13% are either planning on voting independent or are currently undecided. Still, these numbers move a lot, just a year ago the Yukon Party had a commanding lead over both parties, now it has all but disappeared.
The primary issues of concern behind the election are housing, crime and protection of the Peel watershed (the latter of which has been given lacklustre attention by the Yukon Party.) A new NDP leader, Elizabeth Hanson is around for this election replacing the late Todd Hardy. She easily won a by-election putting the Yukon Party and the Liberals far from her vote totals. She claims that her party very well could win the next election. We can only hope so.
Things appear bleak for Premier Dennis Fentie right now. Perhaps he too will learn a lesson from what many other right-wing politicians did in 2010, and resign.
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