After almost a decade at the helm, Yukon NDP Leader Liz Hanson will be stepping down from the position.

The Whitehorse Centre MLA announced the move late Wednesday afternoon, saying it’s time for new more energetic leadership in the lead-up to the next election, due in 2021.

“I felt really good about the timing and having made this decision,” Hanson said while speaking to reporters this morning.

“It’s time to begin focusing on the future of the party.”

With the governing Liberals wrapping up their second calendar year in office, the NDP leader said that “it struck me that we need to begin preparing for that election.”

Hanson was elected as leader of the party in 2009, succeeding the late Todd Hardy, and later as MLA in a byelection in December 2010. She is set to stay on as leader until her successor is appointed.

After thinking about it for quite some time, she said much of her support in the job was bolstered by her husband, Doug Mowat, and her family.

“I feel great about it,” she smiled this morning. “I think having said it out loud, it’s like you have a sense of relief.”

It not only answers a lot of the questions (the Star had heard earlier this year that Hanson was considering stepping down), but it allows some to take a look at themselves as potential leaders.

“It hopefully raises some questions for people as they think, am I the one who wants to lead this party?”

On a more personal note, Hanson experienced the loss of her husband shortly after the November 2016 election, in January 2017.

“I have to say, that was a bit of a kick in the gut.”

Mowat and Hanson were elected to the party’s board of directors in 2009.

Hanson served as president while Mowat was listed as membership.

Meanwhile, she served as leader in 2011 when the party was the official Opposition facing a Yukon Party regime led by Dennis Fentie, then Darrell Pasloski, but that ended with the Liberals’ 2016 victory.

That election saw the party dip from six seats down to just two, losing MLAs Lois Moorcroft, Jim Tredger, Kevin Barr and Jan Stick – who was elected to Whitehorse city council on Oct. 18.

The party’s fate in the 2016 election was disappointing, Hanson acknowledged this morning .

“I think every leader has to assume responsibility,” she said. “So I do. And I have to say it was a disappointment to me and to many.”

Those two seats are Hanson’s and Takhini-Kopper King’s Kate White, meaning the NDP acts as the third party.

The Yukon Party is currently the opposition with six seats, while the Liberals are in power under Premier Sandy Silver with 11.

“The other part of the reality is in the Yukon we are very small – it’s one of the reasons why we’ve been talking so much about making sure that every vote counts,” Hanson continued.

She noted she is proud to have backed a number of social justice causes, advocating on behalf of families like the Rusks.

(In January 2012, four members of the family and a fifth person died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a heating appliance in their rented Centennial Street house.)

Hanson described the Peel watershed planning decision released last Dec. 1 by the Supreme Court of Canada as a significant point not totally detached from her work with First Nations in previous roles, as well as the party’s work in opposing the use of hydraulic fracking in petroleum resources exploration.

The longtime Whitehorse resident was once a social worker, eventually serving as a director of the federal Yukon First Nations self-government and land claims.

Her work took her as far as Australia in her role with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Commission.

She eventually retired from the federal government in 2007 after her role as Regional Director General.

She has served with the Hillcrest Community Association, the Ted Harrison Artist Retreat Society and the Friends of the Gallery Society, among others.

As for advice for the next leader, Hanson hopes she or he comes ready to hit the ground running.

“It’s a challenge to be a political person in any place,” she said.

“And being leader of the party, you’ve got to go at it with a full drive and full heart – and I believe that it’s time now to pass (that on).”

She continued that in anticipation of the next election, “I want the NDP to be able to engage with Yukoners on all levels with full strength.

“But every once in a while you have to realize where you’re at personally and how that may impact you in terms of your job performance.”

Until a new leader is chosen, Hanson will stay on and continue serving alongside White as MLA “with gusto,” she smiled.

“I don’t know what the outcome of that leadership election will be, so I think we have to be open to all options.”

She didn’t rule out exiting the political or public service arena entirely, adding “I don’t see myself disengaging at all.”

As for what exactly comes next: the party’s board of directors is set to lay out the rules and timeline for a race to replace the leader in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, White told the Star at noon today she hasn’t made a decision either way on whether she’ll put herself in the running for leader.

Today is about celebrating Hanson and her accomplishments, she said.

“I’ve got to talk to people and talk to our party members,” White said.

Those conversations will likely go on in the coming weeks, she added.

“There’s room right now if anyone in the community is interested.”

White is serving her second term in the legislature.