2016 Yukon general election

• August 17, 2012: Darius Elias resigns as interim Liberal leader and sits as an independent.[2]
• July 8, 2013: Darius Elias crosses the floor to the Yukon Party.[3]
• March 1, 2014: Sandy Silver agrees to lead the Liberal Party.[4][5]
• May 10, 2016: David Laxton stepped down as Speaker and as a member of the Yukon Party caucus to sit as an Independent MLA due to personal reasons.[6] It would later come out that the resignation was due to an allegation of sexual harassment leveled at Laxton.[7] One month later, the Yukon Party would bar Laxton from running for the party in the upcoming election.[8]
• June 8, 2016: Education Minister and veteran territorial and municipal politician Doug Graham announces he will not seek re-election in his riding of Porter Creek North.[9]
• June 15, 2016: Currie Dixon, minister for Community Services, announces he will not seek a second term as MLA for Copperbelt North. In 2011, Dixon became the Yukon's youngest-ever cabinet minister at the age of 26.[10]
• Aug. 11, 2016: After saying he would not run in the upcoming territorial election, Education Minister Doug Graham announced he would seek the Yukon Party nomination in Whitehorse Centre. Graham has been the Yukon Party MLA for Porter Creek North since 2011.[11]
• October 7, 2016: Premier Darrell Pasloski calls the election for November 7, 2016, starting the official 31-day campaign period.[12]

During the campaign, the issues of economic diversification, environmental management, and First Nations reconciliation were central themes, as was each party's stance on fracking.[13] The announcement that the federal government would impose a national carbon tax[14] also affected the political direction of the campaign, with the Yukon Party vowing to fight any effort to impose a carbon tax on the Yukon.

The incumbent Yukon Party, led by Darrell Pasloski since 2011, had governed the Yukon since 2002 when it defeated the Yukon Liberal Party. While the Yukon Party had been re-elected in 2011 during a commodity boom, by 2016 the Yukon economy was in a recession.[15] Leading into the 2016 campaign, the Yukon Party was drawing criticism over its poor relationship with First Nations, its stance on the environment, access to healthcare, and a perceived mismanagement of the Yukon economy.[16]

The Yukon Party ran on a campaign of True North. Central to this campaign was prioritizing the creation of jobs, growing the economy, and keeping taxes low. It also adamantly opposed the federal carbon tax.[17]

The Yukon Party entered the 2016 campaign with ten of its twelve MLAs seeking re-election, albeit it with two running in different ridings (Scott Kent and Doug Graham).

The Yukon New Democratic Party, led by Liz Hanson, had been the Official Opposition since 2011. The party had been critical of the Yukon Party's relationship with First Nations, its stewardship of the economy, and its management of government services such as healthcare.

The Yukon New Democratic Party ran on a campaign of Building a Better Yukon. The party emphasized the need for a change in government, and championed causes such as improving the healthcare system, transparent government, First Nations reconciliation, and economic diversification. It supported investing a federal carbon tax in green energy and low income supports.[18]

All six Yukon New Democratic Party MLAs sought re-election.

The Yukon Liberal Party, led by Sandy Silver, held only one seat after Darius Elias joined the Yukon Party. The Liberal platform, Be Heard, promoted economic diversification, responsible environmental management, and improving First Nations relations. The Liberals promised to return funds raised from a federal carbon tax back to Yukoners.[19]

Despite having only one seat, the party gained visibility in late 2015 following the election the Liberal Party of Canada to a majority government; it had also been the Third Party. The Yukon Liberal Party had led in the two opinion polls prior to the election period, despite holding just one seat in the legislature – Sandy Silver's district of Klondike. The Liberals also gained attention due to a series of high-profile contested nominations that helped build the profile of their candidates and party in the lead up to the campaign.

The Yukon Green Party, led by Frank De Jong, running in its second election, championed the issue of climate change and electoral reform. It also opposed the public funding of Catholic schools. The Green Party had no incumbent MLAs leading into the election, but managed to run five candidates during the campaign.[20]

Controversy arose when the Chief Electoral Officer launched two inquiries during the campaign, citing concerns about proxy voting, special ballots, and purposeful misinformation by all three candidates in the Mountainview riding, as well as the use of proxy votes by Liberal candidate Tamara Goeppel in the Whitehorse Centre riding. The Chief Electoral Officer eventually ruled that there was no wrongdoing in Mountainview,[21] but her inquiry into Whitehorse Centre led the RCMP to press charges in February 2017.[22][23]

The election also marked a continued trend in the turnout at advance polls, which had doubled in each of the previous two elections.[24] In the 2016 election, advanced turnout doubled again, with 6,437 voters casting advance or special ballots. This represented more than one-in-three votes cast in the election overall (18,787).[25]

Bold incumbents indicates cabinet members and party leaders and the speaker of the assembly are italicized.[35]

• Elections Yukon