Yukon NDP Leader Todd Hardy has been released from Vancouver General Hospital (VGH).

He is now staying at the Jean C. Barber Lodge with his wife, Louise, while he receives daily leukemia treatment at the hospital, NDP spokesman Ken Bolton said this morning.

It had been expected Hardy would have to stay at VGH over the holidays due to complications from a stem cell transplant.

However, on Christmas Eve, doctors entered his room and asked how much notice he would need to move out of the hospital.

'He said, About 90 seconds,'' Bolton said.

The doctors believed Hardy could leave the hospital, returning as an outpatient every day for his treatment of the acute lymphoblastic leukemia he was diagnosed with last August.

Last Friday, Hardy spoke to Whitehorse reporters about a disease that had arisen from the transplant where two different stem cells essentially compete in the body that already is suffering from a depleted immune system.

'It's quite disappointing,' the 49-year-old Hardy said last week.

He also spoke of the days in his small room on the 15th floor of the hospital going by more slowly.

Doctors were pleased enough with his progress by Sunday that he was released.

That meant he and Louise were able to spend Christmas with family friends who live in Vancouver.

'He's very tired, of course,' said Bolton. 'But he was quite looking forward to walking outside.'

Operated by the Canadian Cancer Society, the Jean C. Barber Lodge is about two blocks from VGH. It provides accommodation to cancer patients who are from outside the area, but receiving outpatient care at the hospital or the B.C. Cancer Agency's Vancouver Cancer Centre.

It's expected Hardy will be there until the end of February.

The Whitehorse Centre MLA was unavailable this morning for comment.