With just hours to go until the Yukon Liberals nominate their election candidate in Mountainview, the Star has learned, contestant Mike Gladish has dropped out of the race.

In an email from Gladish dated Sunday and obtained by the Star, the former city councillor told his supporters that he decided last week to pull out of the contest in Mountainview. He is endorsing his former challenger, Jeanie Dendys.

“I believe it is the right time to show solidarity within our diverse community, especially with our large number of First Nation neighbours,” Gladish said in the email.

“Since Jeanie announced her intention to seek the nomination, and even as I began to hear rumours, I felt very uncomfortable promoting myself as a better choice.”

Dendys, who is director of Justice at Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN), was born and grew up in the Yukon and has Tahltan First Nation and Norwegian heritage.

On July 25, she announced her intention to seek the Liberal candidacy in Mountainview, the riding currently held by Premier Darrell Pasloski.

In a brief phone conversation with the Star this morning, Gladish, who did not run in the October 2015 municipal election, said “it was all my choice” to withdraw his name.

He said more will be revealed at tonight’s Liberal nomination meeting at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre.

In the message sent from Gladish’s email to “supporters of Mike Gladish,” the past manager of the Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club said he didn’t want to create a rift in the party by contesting the nomination in a key Whitehorse riding.

“I was confident that I would be a good choice, but I was reluctant to be involved in a vote where the obvious outcome is one loser and one winner,” he said.

“I don’t think the party would gain anything and I worried about the potential of it being divisive in the community.”

Gladish goes on to say Dendys has “the experience and the ability to be the best choice.”

He plans to work with the presumptive candidate in the weeks and months leading up to the election, though he does not specify how.

“My hope is that I am setting an example of working together to solve a problem,” he writes. 

“I hope that the outcome of Tuesday’s nomination meeting will be a feeling of unity between all Liberal supporters in the riding.” 

Dendys could not be reached for comment before this afternoon’s press deadline.

In her time at Kwanlin Dün, Dendys took the lead on developing land-based and clinical healing programs at the Jackson Lake Healing Centre.

She was also instrumental in negotiating a deal with the Yukon government that allows the Kwanlin Dün First Nation to be fully involved in the evaluation and delivery of child welfare services to KDFN families.

“Community safety and well-being are linked, and together form the focus of my work,” she said in a statement announcing her bid to seek the Liberal nomination.

“Our most important resource is our people. It’s difficult to focus on economic welfare when social issues aren’t taken care of.”

Though Dendys lives in Riverdale North, she said she is familiar with the issues in Mountainview, having worked in that riding for the last seven years.

Shaunagh Steikman, a lawyer and Mountainview resident, is the NDP candidate in the riding.

The Liberal nomination meeting for Mountainview will take place at 7:00 this evening in the Grey Mountain Room at Mount McIntyre.