1978 Yukon general election

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.

1978 Yukon general election

November 20, 1978
16 seats of the Yukon Legislative Assembly 9 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	70.43%
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 11 2 1 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

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

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

• Flo Whyard (Whitehorse West)
• Willard Phelps (Whitehorse Riverdale)

Results by Riding

Bold indicates party leaders
† - denotes a retiring incumbent MLA

Electoral district	Candidates								Incumbent
	PC		Liberal		NDP		Independent
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.