Yukon

This article is about Yukon Territory in Canada. See Yukon (disambiguation) for other uses.

Government and Politics

Like the provinces, and unlike the other two territories, the Yukon's unicameral legislature has a party system. Prior to 1979 the territory was administered by the Commissioner who is appointed by the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The Commissioner used to chair and had a role in appointing the territory's Executive Council and used to have a day to day role in governing the territory. However, a significant degree of power was devolved in 1979 from the federal government and Commissioner to the territorial legislature which, in that year, adopted a party system of responsible government.

Related Topics:
Unicameral - Commissioner - Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development - Responsible government

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The territory is presently represented in Ottawa by a single Member of Parliament.

Related Topics:
Ottawa - Member of Parliament

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The Yukon Act, passed in 2002, formalised the powers of the Yukon government and devolved a number of additional powers to the territorial government (e.g. control over land and natural resources). As of 2002, other than criminal prosecutions, the Yukon government has much of the same powers as provincial governments and the other two territories are looking to obtaining the same powers. Today the role of Commissioner is analogous to that of a provincial lieutenant-governor however, unlike lieutenant-governors, Commissioners are not formal representatives of the Queen, but are employees of the Federal government.

Related Topics:
Lieutenant-governor - Queen

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In preparation for responsible government, political parties were organised and ran candidates to the territorial legislature for the first time in 1978. The Progressive Conservatives won these elections and formed the first party government of Yukon in January 1979.

Related Topics:
Responsible government - Legislature - Progressive Conservatives

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The NDP formed the government from 1985 to 1992 under Tony Penikett and again from 1996 under Piers McDonald until being defeated in 2000. The Liberal government of Pat Duncan was razed in elections in November 2002, with Dennis Fentie of the Yukon Party forming the government as Premier. The territory's head of state is a federally appointed Commissioner, a role roughly equivalent to that of a provincial lieutenant governor. The territory has one senator and one member in the Parliament of Canada.

Related Topics:
NDP - Tony Penikett - Piers McDonald - Liberal - Pat Duncan - 2002 - Dennis Fentie - Yukon Party - Premier - Commissioner - Lieutenant governor - Parliament of Canada

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Although there has been discussion in the past about the Yukon becoming Canada's 11th province, it is generally felt that its population base is too sparse for this to occur at present.

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Much of the population of the territory is First Nations. An umbrella land claim agreement representing 7000 members of fourteen different First Nations was signed with the federal government in 1991. Each of the individual First Nations then has to negotiate a specific land claim. To date (December 2004), eleven of the 14 First Nations have a signed agreement. The land belonging to one such nation — the Vuntut Gwitchin — is the northernmost land controlled by Native Americans on the entire North American continent; its administrative center, at Old Crow, is the only such community found north of the Arctic Circle.

Related Topics:
First Nations - 1991 - Native American - Old Crow - Arctic Circle

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The territory once had an Inuit settlement, located on Herschel Island off the Arctic coast. This settlement was dismantled in 1987 and its inhabitants relocated to the neighboring Northwest Territories. The island is now a territorial park and is known officially as Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, Qikiqtaruk being the name of the island in Inuktitut.

Related Topics:
Inuit - Herschel Island - Arctic - 1987 - Northwest Territories - Inuktitut

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Yukon was one of eight jurisdictions in Canada to offer same-sex marriage before the passage of Canada's Civil Marriage Act, along with British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. See same-sex marriage in Yukon.

Related Topics:
Same-sex marriage - Civil Marriage Act - British Columbia - Manitoba - Newfoundland and Labrador - Nova Scotia - Ontario - Quebec - Saskatchewan - Same-sex marriage in Yukon

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