Yukon Party Re-elected
My congratulations to Dennis Fentie on his re-election. I was pleased to see the centre-right Yukon Party be re-elected and also pleased to see the Yukon Liberals will form the official opposition. While I don't follow Yukon politics close enough to say which party I would have voted for, I think either of the two parties would be preferable to the Yukon NDP. Although considering the history of floor crossing in the Yukon Territory, it will be interesting to see if the Yukon Party holds its majority or falls to a minority. I don't know why, but for whatever reason floor crossing seems to be quite common in Yukon politics. I suspect that since the constituencies are so small in population it is easier to win on being a good MLA, whereas in many provinces one's electability usually has more to do with what party banner they run under their local candidate. If any Yukon bloggers read this, perhaps you can inform me a bit more about the political scene in the Yukon.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 9:29 PM
5 Comments:
Good call, Miles!
Yes Miles, the small ridings are probably a major cause of the high incidence of floor crossing in the Yukon. You can read a bit about the Yukon election on my blog.
Kyle - Interesting take. I kind of suspected the small ridings were a major reason for high rates of floor crossing since I know at least federally people usually only cross the floor if their party takes a huge decline in a certain region (three PC MPs in 2000 crossed to the Liberals) or they feel they at least have a chance at winning under the other party's banner.
I was neutral between the Liberals and Yukon Party on who I wanted to win since my take is the Yukon Party is much like the former Progressive Conservatives while the Liberals are like the federal Liberals so since I am comfortable with both parties federally, I don't see why it would be different in the Yukon.
I also read that one of the reasons for the frequent floor crossings is that the party caucuses are so small that if one doesn't like the leader, or finds them too controling, it become unbearable to stay in that caucus so they defect.
Also, political parties were only established in Yukon during the 1970s - so party divisions don't seem to be as entrenched there. The other two territories don't have political parties.
Interesting too is that Fentie himself is a former NDP MLA!
You are probably right Harrap. Being in a caucus of 100+ MPs, we can easily stay in there even if they dislike certain members or the leader. If one dislikes certain members in a caucus of under 10, it is pretty hard to stay put.
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