NDP Leader Liz Hanson gathered her team along the Whitehorse waterfront this morning to kick off what she is calling the most exciting and critical election in the Yukon’s history.

In addition to 14 of the 19 candidates running under the orange banner over the next month, there were many party supporters and campaign staff members on hand for the party leader’s official kickoff.

Gwitchin elder Mary Decker provided the opening prayer in both Gwitchin and English, followed by a short statement by Doronn K. Fox, a Kwanlin Dün First Nation youth.

“This election means a lot to this community, and to the Yukon,” Fox told the party faithful gathered below Yukon artist Ken Anderson’s work titled Building on the Past, Looking into the Future.

“These words resonate deeply with me and my team,” Hanson said in her address.

“It is building on the hope that comes with honouring our commitment to reconciliation. We know that reconciliation is more than vague promises – it is a process and it takes time.

“There are no short cuts. It’s time for government that not only listens to you, but involves you and works with you.”

Hanson touched briefly but directly upon issues that will undoubtedly will be hot-button topics through the 32-day campaign leading up to the Nov. 7 election.

There would be no pussyfooting around when it comes to fracking, no uncertainty wrapped in words like moratoriums, she insisted.

Hanson said there would be no hydraulic fracturing in the Yukon under a New Democratic government.

There would be immediate action on the realities of climate change in the North, said the leader of the Official Opposition.

Hanson said the NDP would push to make the territory a leader in renewable energy.

“The Liberals and the Conservative Yukon Party, are trying to scare Yukoners by saying we can’t maintain jobs and protect our environment,” she said.

“The Yukon NDP knows that if we want real long-term jobs and a sustainable economy, the renewable energy sector is the future.

“We will not back down on our responsibility to our children’s children.”

Hanson said there is a need for a government that supports the mining industry, a government that will provide a health care system built on collaboration and based in Yukon communities.

The tourism industry would no longer be a poor cousin in the territory’s economy as the New Democrats work to release their potential as a substantial contributor, she said.

The party leader insisted there is still a void in the provision of affordable housing that needs addressing.

“A Yukon NDP government will work with all sectors, communities and First Nation governments to make affordable, accessible housing a priority, not just a talking point.”

Hanson’s audience listened attentively, and at her conclusion, provided a raucous rally chant: “NDP, NDP, NDP!”

Having formed government three times – two majorities – since 1978, when party politics began in the Yukon, the New Democrats are no strangers to ruling the roost.

They are, however, up against three successive majority governments by the Yukon Party and what was substantial support from the right for Premier Darrell Pasloski’s team across the territory in 2011.

While the NDP secured its six seats with 32.6 per cent of the popular vote five years ago, the Yukon Party pulled in 40.5 per cent. The Liberals trailed a distant third with 25.2 per cent, good enough for one seat.

Observers, on the other hand, can’t deny that Liberal Leader Sandy Silver has cemented a very solid team of reputable and well-known candidates in Whitehorse and rural Yukon.

Asked this morning about the suggestion Pasloski is more focused on tackling the Liberals than the NDP, Hanson shrugged.

“My job is to form government,” she said. “I don’t care where Mr. Pasloski wants to place his aim.”

And when asked whether she is comfortable with the campaign budget the party has put together, Hanson said the party is not flush.

It is, however, very well prepared and organized to go forward over the next month.

“This is, as I said earlier, a watershed moment for Yukon. An historic opportunity,” Hanson said in her final word to fellow candidates and supporters.

“The Yukon NDP has, and will continue to work to earn your trust. We will never take that trust for granted.

“The Yukon NDP will be principled and clear with Yukoners.”