1978 Yukon general election

November 20, 1978

16 seats of the Yukon Legislative Assembly
9 seats needed for a majority
Turnout70.43%[1]
  First party Second party Third party
 
Lib
NDP
Leader Hilda Watson Iain MacKay Fred Berger
Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic
Leader since 1978 1978 1978
Leader's seat Kluane
(lost re-election)
Ran in Whitehorse Riverdale South (won) Klondike
(lost re-election)
Last election pre-creation pre-creation pre-creation
Seats won 11 2 1
Seat change Increase11 Increase2 Increase1
Popular vote 2,869 2,201 1,568
Percentage 37.10% 28.46% 20.27%

Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Riding names are listed at the bottom.

Premier before election

None (position established)

Premier after election

Chris Pearson
Progressive Conservative

The 1978 Yukon general election was held on November 20, 1978, was the first conventional legislative election in the history of Canada's Yukon Territory. Prior elections were held to elect representatives to the Yukon Territorial Council, a non-partisan body that acted in an advisory role to the Commissioner of the Yukon. Following the passage of the Yukon Elections Act in 1977, the 1978 election was the first time that voters in the Yukon elected representatives to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in an election organized along political party lines.

Hilda Watson, the first woman ever to lead a political party into an election in Canada, was the leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Although the party won the election, Watson herself was defeated in Kluane by Liberal candidate Alice McGuire, and thus did not become government leader. The position of government leader instead went to Chris Pearson.

New Democratic leader Fred Berger was also defeated in his own riding. He remained leader of the party until 1981, when he was succeeded by the party's sole elected MLA, Tony Penikett. Under Penikett's leadership, an MLA who had been elected as an independent in 1978 joined the NDP, and the party won a by-election. With its caucus increased to three members, the NDP had thus supplanted the Liberals as the official opposition by the time of the 1982 election.

Results by Party

Summary of the 1978 Legislative Assembly of Yukon election results[2]
Party Party leader Candidates Seats Popular vote
1974 Dissol. 1978 Change # % Change
Progressive Conservative Hilda Watson 15 0 0 11 +11 2,869 37.10% N/A
Liberal Iain MacKay 14 0 0 2 +2 2,201 28.46% N/A
  Independent 9 12 12 2 -10 1,096 14.17% N/A
New Democratic Fred Berger 14 0 0 1 +1 1,568 20.27% N/A
Total 52 12 12 16 +4 7,734 100.00%
Popular vote
Progressive Conservative
37.10%
Liberal
28.46%
New Democratic
20.27%
Independent
14.17%
Seats summary
Progressive Conservative
68.75%
Liberal
12.50%
Independent
12.50%
New Democratic
6.25%

Incumbents not Running for Reelection

The following MLAs had announced that they would not be running in the 1978 election:

Independent

Results by Riding

Bold indicates party leaders
† - denotes a retiring incumbent MLA

Electoral district Candidates Incumbent
PCLiberalNDPIndependent
Campbell Don McIntosh
61
Blake Stirling Macdonald
120
Margaret Thomson
65
Robert Fleming
184
New District
Faro Stuart McCall
231
Maurice Byblow
361
New District
Hootalinqua Al Falle
209
Mike Laforet
83
Max Fraser
159
Mack Henry
44
Robert Fleming
Klondike Meg McCall
152
Fred Berger
130
Eleanor Millard
114
Fred Berger
Kluane Hilda Watson
150
Alice McGuire
188
John Livesey
49
Hilda Watson
Mayo Swede Hanson
95
Gordon McIntyre
84
Alan McDiarmid
82
David Harwood
85
Gordon McIntyre
Old Crow Grafton Njootli
62
Edith Tizya
29
Robert Bruce
19
New District
Tatchun Howard Tracey
109
Hugh Netzel
71
Jerry Roberts
83
New District
Watson Lake Don Taylor
226
Grant Taylor
188
Don Taylor
Whitehorse North Centre Geoff Lattin
153
Dermot Flynn
83
Doug Stephenson
131
Ken McKinnon
141
Ken McKinnon
Whitehorse Porter Creek East Dan Lang
322
Bill Webber
202
Paul Warner
84
New District
Whitehorse Porter Creek West Doug Graham
188
Clive Tanner
142
Kathy Horton
60
New District
Whitehorse Riverdale North Chris Pearson
358
Richard Rotondo
194
Dave Dornian
59
New District
Whitehorse Riverdale South Margaret Heath
354
Iain MacKay
420
Jim McCullough
113
New District
Whitehorse South Centre Jack Hibberd
245
Bert Law
197
Ken Krocker
122
Jack Hibberd
Whitehorse West Anthony Fekete
185
John Watt
200
Tony Penikett
230
Al Omotani
81
Guy Julien
37
Flo Whyard

Aftermath

After the election, four of the elected members in the Progressive Conservative Party, including Chris Pearson, were added to the Executive Committee headed by Commissioner Art Pearson. In October 1979, at the instruction of Jake Epp, Federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Commissioner withdrew from direct government administration; Chris Pearson became Government Leader (equal to Premier), added a fifth member of the PC Party caucus, and formed the Executive Council of Yukon, thus beginning responsible government with an elected head of government in The Yukon. Art Pearson would later resign as Commissioner after pleading guilty to charges related to improper mining claim transfers and was replaced with Frank Fingland.[3]

References

  1. Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Yukon on the 1978 General Election Elections Yukon, 1978. Retrieved March 26, 2021
  2. Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Yukon on the 1978 General Election Elections Yukon, 1978. Retrieved March 26, 2021
  3. Commissioners of the Yukon, 1948-2018 Commissioners of the Yukon, 1948-2018. Retrieved March 26, 2021
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