Yukon Liberals to pick new leader on June 19

The Yukon Liberal Party will select its next leader — and therefore the territory's next premier — on June 19 in Whitehorse.

The party announced the date of its upcoming leadership convention on Thursday. It follows Premier Ranj Pillai's surprise announcement earlier this week that he would step down once a new leader is chosen, and will not run in the upcoming territorial election.

Pillai has been premier since January 2023, when he took on the role after former premier Sandy Silver decided to give up the party leadership. Pillai ran unopposed for the leadership.

Nobody has yet declared their intention to seek the party leadership this time around. The deadline to submit a nomination is May 29.

Party members will be able to vote in person at the event in Whitehorse, or by proxy. If there are several candidates, voting will be done by a ranked preferential ballot, which means there may be several rounds of voting before a winner is declared.

The new leader does not automatically become premier, but it would likely happen within days, according to Floyd McCormick, a retired clerk of the Legislative Assembly who still closely watches Yukon politics. McCormick says the territory's commissioner would need to issue an order making the new Liberal leader the premier.

Whether or not that person already has a seat in the Legislative Assembly is of little consequence in the short term, McCormick says. They'll still have all the powers and responsibilities of the premiership until the next election.

"Constitutionally speaking, that authority is always there to deal with anything that comes up," he said.

McCormick points to parallels with the federal Liberals, who chose Mark Carney as their leader before he had a seat in Parliament. It's also happened before in the Yukon, McCormick points out.

In 1985, Chris Pearson resigned after seven years as government leader, or premier, and Willard Phelps was chosen to succeed him, though Phelps didn't have a seat in the legislature. An election was called almost immediately and Phelps's Progressive Conservatives were ousted by Tony Penikett's NDP. Phelps had been premier for 10 weeks.

Then in 2011, Darrell Pasloski was chosen to succeed Dennis Fentie as Yukon Party leader though Pasloski was not then a sitting MLA. Pasloski, as premier, also called an election soon after, winning himself a seat and his party another majority government.   

Election unlikely before fall, McCormick says

The next premier also won't have much time before they have to face voters. The territorial election must happen by Nov. 3 — after a minimum 31-day campaign — but could be called sooner. 

McCormick, however, thinks it's unlikely that Yukoners will be going to the polls before fall. He said he doesn't see any advantage for the governing party to call it anytime sooner.

"I don't think a summer election is something that anybody would be interested in," McCormick said.

He said the party may need more time to line up its candidates for the upcoming campaign, a process which may be influenced by who the new leader is.

McCormick also suggested that the new premier might want at least a bit of time in the role before facing voters. He compares it to how Carney became prime minister in March and then waited some days before calling the federal election.

"So it's kind of like an audition for the position. And so, you know, the more you can act like a premier before the election, then maybe that'll convince a few people that you can be continue as premier after the election," McCormick said.

He also doesn't expect the Legislative Assembly to sit again before the writ is dropped, unless "there's some sort of emergency situation."

"Anything else that a premier has to do in their capacity as premier, in terms of exercising executive authority, they can do that without the House being in session."