Mayo-Tatchun MLA Eric Fairclough has joined the Liberal party.

At a press conference this morning, Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell announced alongside Fairclough the MLA will be joining the party.

'I believe Mr. Fairclough has been very up front with his constituents and straightforward about how he can best serve them,' said Mitchell. 'He deserves to be congratulated for the courage and honesty with which he has approached this situation.'

Fairclough, along with Kluane MLA Gary McRobb, were ousted from the NDP in March after party leader Todd Hardy learned they had been consulting with constituents about their political futures and the possibility of running under the Liberal banner in the next election.

Fairclough told the news conference he was very honest with Hardy about his plans to consult with his constituents, and did not meet any sort of opposition from his leader at the time.

Hardy, however, said previously he understood Fairclough was considering not running again in the next election not realigning himself with a different party.

After McRobb was removed from the party, the MLA along with Mitchell provided Fairclough's name as another individual looking to defect and in a consultation process with constituents.

Fairclough then provided a different story to the media than Hardy's understanding and was removed from the party's caucus days later.

Fairclough will be filing a letter to end his membership with the NDP later today.

'The past few years I've questioned Todd's leadership and the direction that he's taken the NDP,' Fairclough said today. 'I feel that he was leading the party too far to the left and many of my constituents feel the same way too.'

Fairclough has been consulting with his constituents for several months about if he should join with the Liberals or other options for his political future. He said he felt it was time he made his decision.

McRobb joined the Liberals prior to the start of the spring legislature sitting. Fairclough, however, has been sitting as an independent.

His movement to join the Liberals will now make the party the official Opposition with four members. The NDP will continue to have three, becoming the third party in the legislature.

The change will have an effect on the number of questions each party is permitted to ask in the legislature during question period and on the operating budget of each caucus.

Fairclough joining the Liberals will add $30,244 to the party's research budget. It will also raise the party's secretarial assistants' budget to $82,563.

Meanwhile, the NDP will drop to a budget of $45,697. Its research budget will not be affected because Fairclough had already left the party, taking the money allocated to him along with him.

The two leaders will also see a change in their paycheques.

Mitchell's pay will jump to $75,999 from $59,081 annually, which is what Hardy will now be receiving.

Hardy said today he was not surprised by Fairclough's move to the Liberals.

'We knew this was going to happen. It was just a matter of when Mr. Fairclough was going to make his announcement,' said Hardy.

With only 14 days remaining in the the spring sitting of the legislature and a territorial election pending, Hardy said, he was unconcerned with the NDP losing its official Opposition status.

'We are without a doubt, all of us are now, moving into election mode and that is where a lot of focus will be for all three parties,' he said.

'We've been working very hard to get election-ready and we've been doing that knowing full well these two members were probably not going to be part of our campaign.'

Fairclough cited Hardy's leadership as one of the key factors in his decision to move to the Liberals. McRobb had made similar statements following his defection to the Liberals.

Both men indicated they had asked Hardy to call a leadership review at a fall convention of the party, which was cancelled due to last November's Copperbelt byelection, won by Mitchell.

Despite their expressed concerns about Hardy's leadership, no one challenged him for the position at the NDP's convention on April 22.

'From what I've been hearing, a lot of them are writing off this election and feeling they are going to lose and they have to focus on the next one and they are keeping Todd in there to handle the next election,' said Fairclough.

'I believe they will make a change down the road. But it's too late for me. They should have made the changes earlier.'

Fairclough and McRobb are just being 'self-serving' and using the excuse of leadership to advance their 'own opportunistic goals,' said Hardy.

'No one challenged me. No one's come forward. The only people you've heard this from are these two dissatisfied people,' said Hardy. 'If there is an issue with my leadership, the party itself will make that decision, not any one individual member.'

Hardy said he suspects Fairclough decided to move to the Liberals now, because the NDP's tabled legislation, which would make it impossible for an elected member to cross the floor and sit in another party, is scheduled to be debated on Wednesday.

The bill requires a member who leaves a party, whose banner they were elected under, to sit as an independent for the reminder of his or her term.

Hardy had hoped the legislation would get unanimous support in the house, but added he fully expects the Liberals to vote against it.

'Floor-crossing is serving them quite well right now, though, I suspect that if someone was moving from them to another party their message would be quite different,' said Hardy.

He added he doubted Mitchell would be using the words 'courageous' or 'honest' to describe someone joining another party, if the individual had been leaving the Liberals.

The method in which the two MLAs have joined the Liberals should call the party's ethics into question, he said.

'Actions like this does not engender any type of confidence in leadership, if all it becomes is wheeling and dealing behind back doors and you don't really know what you're going to get when you go to the polls.'

Fairclough will go uncontested for the Liberal nomination to run as a candidate in Mayo-Tatchun in the territorial election, which must be called by Premier Dennis Fentie by November.

It's Liberal policy not to require a sitting member to seek nomination, said Mitchell.

'It is important to me, as party leader, to have another rural MLA joining our caucus,' said Mitchell, adding Fairclough will also bring a first nations perspective to the party.

Holding two rural seats and having that input in the party's caucus is 'tremendously' important, said Mitchell.

'I have a tremendously strong desire to make sure the Liberal party is a Yukon Liberal party, not as sometimes accused in the past a Whitehorse Liberal party,' he said.

Fairclough has been serving in the legislative assembly since 1996.

He'd previously served as interim leader of the NDP after former leader Piers McDonald was defeated in the 2000 election, and as chief of Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation and director on the Northern Tutchone Tribal Council for six years.