Liberal leader faces test
Members of the Yukon Liberal Party will vote on whether they still want Pat Duncan to lead them.
Members of the Yukon Liberal Party will vote on whether they still want Pat Duncan to lead them.
But the leader of six years has no interest in giving up the reins.
A leadership review vote will be part of the territorial Liberal party's annual general meeting at the Masonic Hall on Fifth Avenue tomorrow.
Yukon Liberal president Eldon Organ said the party's constitution calls for a leadership review at the first annual meeting after an election.
Due to delays last fall, the meeting was put off until this weekend.
Party members will be asked whether a leadership election should be held.
A leadership campaign will take place if more than 50 per cent of members voting at tomorrow's meeting vote in favour of it.
Duncan told the Star today she has no plans to use the opportunity of a leadership vote to announce she's stepping aside.
'I am the leader of the party,' she said. 'I like what I'm doing.'
She said she has a job to do, represent the people of Porter Creek South and the Yukon's Liberals, in the legislature. She wants to continue doing that job.
The leadership review is standard and doesn't mean the party is trying to get rid of her, she noted.
'It's not something extraordinary,' said Duncan.
Because the party calls for such a vote after every election, this is not the first time Duncan's leadership has been reviewed.
However, the other leadership review she went through was after the 2000 election, when she led the Liberal party to its first-ever victory in the Yukon and a majority government.
This time, Duncan goes into the review as the only Liberal MLA in the Yukon's 18-member legislature following a devastating election in November 2002, where the Liberals were completely swept out of office, except for her.
While in power, the local Liberal party was blasted for not opening its annual meeting to the media.
At the time, the Yukon Party trumpeted the openness of its party meetings.
But when the Yukon Party, now in power, met in December, it closed the door to the media and the public. The Yukon Party's meeting in the spring was partially open.
Now it's the Liberals' turn to open up the doors to segments of its meeting to the media. Those who are not party members or the media are not welcomed.
While the NDP was in government in the late 1990s, parts of its meetings were open.
Traditionally, all parties close portions of their gatherings for strategy meetings and planning.
The party will also discuss policy and elect a new executive at the meeting.
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