With Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative federal government's decreasing popularity, the Yukon Progressive Conservatives decided to sever its relations with the federal Conservatives, and renamed itself the "Yukon Party" prior to the 1992 election. However, two Progressive Conservative MLAs, Bea Firth and Alan Nordling, quit the party in protest of the name change and formed the Independent Alliance Party. Nordling later returned to the party, and was defeated as a Yukon Party candidate in the 1996 election, while Firth retired from politics. The Yukon Party won the 1992 election, and leader John Ostashek became Premier of Yukon. His government became very unpopular by increasing taxes and cutting services. The party was defeated in the 1996 election, winning only three seats and falling to third place for the first time behind the Yukon Liberal Party.
Since 2000
The party's fortunes continued to decline at the 2000 general election. The Yukon Party was reduced to a single seat in the legislature as the right wing vote moved to the Yukon Liberal Party, putting the Liberals in power for the first time in the territory's history. Liberal Premier Pat Duncan's government was plagued with internal dissent, however, and despite having won an outright majority of seats in the general election, defections and resignations reduced the Liberals to a minority government within two years. Premier Duncan called a snap election for 4 November 2002, in an effort to regain her majority, but the early election call backfired. The Yukon Party had elected Dennis Fentie, a rural Member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, who had defected from the NDP, as its new leader in June 2002. Despite being caught by surprise by the election call, the party was able to win a majority government with 12 seats compared to five for the NDP. The Liberals were reduced to a single seat. Fentie became the second Yukon Premier from a rural riding. On 10 October 2006, the Yukon Party was re-elected, holding 10 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Yukon Liberals won five seats and the Yukon New Democrats won three. The party was defeated in the 2016 Yukon general election and is currently serving as the Official Opposition.
On May 28, 2011, a leadership election was held to replace Dennis Fentie. Darrell Pasloski was chosen after only one ballot.
Candidate
Votes
Percentage
Darrell Pasloski
767
61.3%
Rod Taylor
436
34.9%
Jim Kenyon
48
3.8%
TOTAL
1,251
100.0%
2020 leadership election
On November 20, 2019, the party announced that it would hold a leadership election on May 23, 2020. On March 25, party president Mark Beese announced that the voting will take place over phone and online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currie Dixon was elected with 50.44% of the vote on the second ballot. Dixon took 752 votes to 682 for Brad Cathers. On the first ballot, Dixon fell short of a majority, with 694 votes to Cathers' 637. Longtime party staffer Linda Benoit finished third with 160 votes.
