The race is on.

Premier Darrell Pasloski asked Commissioner Doug Phillips to dissolve the legislative assembly this morning and announced that Yukoners will go to the polls on Nov. 7.

Pasloski kicked off the campaign with a press conference at Bigway Foods in Copper Ridge, where he promised to keep taxes down and fight the national price on carbon “tooth and nail.”

“That’s why I’m standing here in this locally-owned food store,” he said from behind a podium in the produce section.

“I want to protect the ability of Yukon families to afford the basic necessities of life and I want to protect the ability of local business owners to be able to succeed.”

Pasloski promised no tax increases in a Yukon Party news release issued this morning.

At Bigway Foods, he said his government would continue to partner with Ottawa on job-creating infrastructure projects.

The Yukon Party has been in power since 2002 and has won the majority of seats in each of the last three elections. Pasloski is vying for a second term as premier after five years at the helm.

“This election isn’t about the past five years, this election is about the next five years,” he said.

But many Yukoners don’t see it that way.

After nearly a decade and a half of Yukon Party governments, this election will be as much a referendum on the territory’s conservative party and its leader, as it will be about today’s big issues.

Indeed, in the last five years, the Peel watershed land use dispute has moved up to the Supreme Court of Canada, and provoked the ire of many First Nations and environmentalists along the way.

Pasloski’s support of Bill S-6, which some First Nations governments said disrespected their land claim agreements and undermined the Umbrella Final Agreement, is still fresh in the minds of many.

Despite the historic nature of the event, the premier took just three questions from the media this morning, even though reporters had many more to ask.

In answer to one, about how he would address First Nations relationships, Pasloski urged voters to take stock of his roster of candidates when considering his relationships with Yukon First Nations.

“We have some incredible First Nations leaders who are a part of our team,” he said.

“That speaks volumes for the many First Nations who believe in the path that we are following.”

As the opposition parties have repeatedly pointed out, under the Yukon Party, the territory’s economy has contracted every year for the past three, and is projected to shrink even more – by 7.7 per cent, according to the Conference Board of Canada – in 2017.

The NDP and Liberals will jostle to prove they have the chops to grow the Yukon’s shrinking economy and repair relationships with First Nations governments.

The NDP, led by Liz Hanson, has been the official Opposition for the last five years, with six of the 19 seats in the legislative assembly.

The Liberals head into the campaign with just one MLA, party leader Sandy Silver.

The Yukon Green Party is also in the race this year, with five candidates.

Frank de Jong, the former federal Green Party candidate for Yukon, is leader.

The Yukon Party is pushing to make carbon pricing a wedge issue.

“It’s unique here in that almost everything that we consume comes thousands of kilometres in a truck,” the premier told the audience at Bigway Foods.

“If you put a tax on carbon, that means everything in those vehicles is going to cost more money, whether it’s food that you have here, whether it’s clothing, whether it’s home heating oil, whether it’s gasoline for your truck, or whether it’s fuel for Air North.”

Earlier this week, Community Services Minister Currie Dixon said he got Catherine McKenna, the federal Environment minister, to consider “different policy options other than carbon pricing” in the North.

A spokesperson for McKenna recently told The Canadian Press that the federal government is committed to working with the territories “to find something that works for them,” but McKenna has given no other indication that the territories will be exempt from paying the national price on carbon.

For its part, the NDP says it would institute a carbon tax and ensure that every dollar generated is returned to low- and middle-income Yukoners and put toward environmental initiatives.

The Liberals also support a price on carbon, but have yet to detail how it would work in the Yukon.

Silver said last week that he would work to make a carbon tax “revenue-neutral,” and that money collected would be returned to Yukoners.

Pasloski reminded the grocery store crowd this morning that under his reign, Goldcorp bought Kaminak and its Coffee project by Dawson, that scheduled flights between Watson Lake and Whitehorse began, and that Save-on-Foods announced plans to open a location in Whitehorse that’s now under construction.

“We can’t control the commodity prices, but I believe we’ve done a very good job,” said Pasloski.

“I’m very excited about the future.”

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