1978 Yukon general election
{{Short description|Canadian territorial election}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox election|election_name=1978 Yukon general election|country=Yukon|type=parliamentary|ongoing=no|party_colour=no|party_name=no|previous_election=1974 Yukon general election|previous_year=1974|next_election=1982 Yukon general election|next_year=1982|seats_for_election=16 seats of the Yukon Legislative Assembly|majority_seats=9|election_date=November 20, 1978|turnout=70.43%[https://electionsyukon.ca/sites/elections/files/1978_general_election_0.pdf Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Yukon on the 1978 General Election] Elections Yukon, 1978. Retrieved March 26, 2021|image1=|colour1={{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|nohash}}|leader1=Hilda Watson|leader_since1=1978|party1={{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|name}}|leaders_seat1=Kluane
(lost re-election)|last_election1=pre-creation|seats1=11|seat_change1={{increase}}11|popular_vote1=2,869|percentage1=37.10%|swing1=|image2=
(lost re-election)|last_election3=pre-creation|seats3=1|seat_change3={{increase}}1|popular_vote3=1,568|percentage3=20.27%|swing3=|map_image= Yukon_Territorial_Election_1978_-_Results_by_Riding.svg|map_size=360px|map_caption=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.|title=Premier|posttitle=Premier after election|before_election=None (position established)|before_party=|after_election=Chris Pearson|after_party={{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|name}}}}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.
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
{{election table|title=Summary of the 1978 Legislative Assembly of Yukon election results[https://electionsyukon.ca/sites/elections/files/1978_general_election_0.pdf Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Yukon on the 1978 General Election] Elections Yukon, 1978. Retrieved March 26, 2021}}
|- style="background:#ccc;"
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Party
! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Party leader
!rowspan="2"|Candidates
! colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|Seats
!colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|Popular vote
|- style="background:#ccc;"
| style="text-align:center;"|1974
| style="text-align:center;font-size: 80%;"|Dissol.
| style="text-align:center;"|1978
| style="text-align:center;"|Change
| style="text-align:center;"|#
| style="text-align:center;"|%
| style="text-align:center;"|Change
{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|row-name}}
|align=left|Hilda Watson
|align="right"|15
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|11
|align="right"|+11
|align="right"|2,869
|align="right"|37.10%
|align="right"|N/A
{{Canadian party colour|YT|Liberal|row-name}}
|align=left|Iain MacKay
|align="right"|14
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|2
|align="right"|+2
|align="right"|2,201
|align="right"|28.46%
|align="right"|N/A
{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|row}}
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Independent
|align="right"|9
|align="right"|12
|align="right"|12
|align="right"|2
|align="right"|-10
|align="right"|1,096
|align="right"|14.17%
|align="right"|N/A
{{Canadian party colour|YT|NDP|row-name}}
|align=left|Fred Berger
|align="right"|14
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|0
|align="right"|1
|align="right"|+1
|align="right"|1,568
|align="right"|20.27%
|align="right"|N/A
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"|Total
| style="text-align:right;"|52
| style="text-align:right;"|12
| style="text-align:right;"|12
| style="text-align:right;"|16
| style="text-align:right;"|+4
| style="text-align:right;"|7,734
| style="text-align:right;"|100.00%
| style="text-align:right;"|
|}
{{Bar box|title=Popular vote|titlebar=#ddd|width=650px|barwidth=400px|bars={{Bar percent|Progressive Conservative|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC}}|37.10}}
{{Bar percent|Liberal|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Liberal}}|28.46}}
{{Bar percent|New Democratic|{{Canadian party colour|YT|NDP}}|20.27}}
{{Bar percent|Independent|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent}}|14.17}}}}{{Bar box|title=Seats summary|titlebar=#ddd|width=650px|barwidth=400px|bars={{Bar percent|Progressive Conservative|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC}}|68.75}}
{{Bar percent|Liberal|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Liberal}}|12.50}}
{{Bar percent|Independent|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent}}|12.50}}
{{Bar percent|New Democratic|{{Canadian party colour|YT|NDP}}|6.25}}}}
Incumbents not Running for Reelection
The following MLAs had announced that they would not be running in the 1978 election:
Independent
Results by Riding
Bold indicates party leaders
† - denotes a retiring incumbent MLA
{{Canadian politics/candlist header|province=YT|PC|Liberal|NDP|Independent}}
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Campbell
|
|Don McIntosh
61
|
|Blake Stirling Macdonald
120
|
|Margaret Thomson
65
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Robert Fleming
184
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Faro
|
|
|
|
|
|Stuart McCall
231
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Maurice Byblow
361
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Hootalinqua
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Al Falle
209
|
|Mike Laforet
83
|
|Max Fraser
159
|
|Mack Henry
44
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Robert Fleming
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Klondike
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Meg McCall
152
|
|
|
|Fred Berger
130
|
|Eleanor Millard
114
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Fred Berger
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Kluane
|
|Hilda Watson
150
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Liberal|background}}|
|Alice McGuire
188
|
|
|
|John Livesey
49
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Hilda Watson
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Mayo
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Swede Hanson
95
|
|
|Alan McDiarmid
82
|
|David Harwood
85
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Gordon McIntyre
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Old Crow
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|
|Edith Tizya
29
|
|Robert Bruce
19
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Tatchun
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Howard Tracey
109
|
|Hugh Netzel
71
|
|Jerry Roberts
83
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Watson Lake
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Don Taylor
226
|
|Grant Taylor
188
|
|
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Don Taylor
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse North Centre
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Geoff Lattin
153
|
|Dermot Flynn
83
|
|Doug Stephenson
131
|
|Ken McKinnon
141
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Ken McKinnon
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Porter Creek East
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Dan Lang
322
|
|Bill Webber
202
|
|Paul Warner
84
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Porter Creek West
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Doug Graham
188
|
|Clive Tanner
142
|
|Kathy Horton
60
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Riverdale North
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Chris Pearson
358
|
|Richard Rotondo
194
|
|Dave Dornian
59
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Riverdale South
|
|Margaret Heath
354
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Liberal|background}}|
|Iain MacKay
420
|
|Jim McCullough
113
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Other|background}}|
|New District
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse South Centre
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|PC|background}}|
|Jack Hibberd
245
|
|Bert Law
197
|
|Ken Krocker
122
|
|
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|Jack Hibberd
|-
| style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse West
|
|Anthony Fekete
185
|
|John Watt
200
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|NDP|background}}|
|Tony Penikett
230
|
|Al Omotani
81
Guy Julien
37
|{{Canadian party colour|YT|Independent|background}}|
|}
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.[https://commissionerofyukon.ca/commissioners-1948-2018 Commissioners of the Yukon, 1948-2018 ] Commissioners of the Yukon, 1948-2018. Retrieved March 26, 2021
References
{{reflist}}
{{YU Elections}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yukon general election, 1978}}