When Paul MacDonald drove from Nova Scotia to the Yukon 20 years ago, in his mom’s beat-up old station wagon, he didn’t think his buddy sitting next to him would one day be premier.Leader of the Yukon Teachers’ Association, maybe, he joked but, premier?

“Probably not.”

Though Sandy Silver, the Yukon government’s leader-designate as of unofficial results Monday night, has long displayed the qualities of a leader, MacDonald said Monday evening at a delirious Liberal party headquarters.

“Sandy’s not negative, he’s a positive dude. There’s no BS really, except joking around.” said MacDonald, a childhood friend from in Antigonish, N.S., adding, “He mobilized people.”

Another old Antigonish friend, Graham Boyd, chimed in: “We’re very proud of Sandy, he’s going to do good for the Yukon.”

The Yukon Liberals catapulted to massive victory in Monday election. They snatched 11 of the 19 seats in the legislature, putting an end to 14 years of Yukon Party rule, according to the unofficial count from Elections Yukon.

The governing Yukon Party won six seats and the NDP dropped from official Opposition to third party, earning just two seats.

The 47-year-old Silver, who went from party of one, to premier-designate of a majority government, was “elated.”

Elated, but not surprised.

“We knew by signing up almost 2,000 people to the party over the last six months that people were talking about the Liberals,” he told the Star over the phone from his Klondike riding, after his win, late Monday night.

The Liberals didn’t make big, flashy promises, but vowed to deliver “a Yukon solution to both the environment and the economy,” he said, and people appreciated that.

Silver was joined in the Klondike by his mother, sister, two brothers and his niece.

Shortly after the results were in, Silver made contact with Grand Chief Peter Johnston of the Council of Yukon First Nations, and Chief Roberta Joseph of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, the First Nation based in Dawson.

Both Liz Hanson, leader of the Yukon NDP, and Premier Darrell Pasloski – who lost his Whitehorse seat – called up Silver after his win.

“Darrell and I had, the best way to describe it is, a very human conversation,” said Silver.

“We don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye politically, but at the end of the day, everybody’s a human and everybody’s working for what they believe is best for their ridings.”

Silver said he thanked Pasloski for his service to the Yukon over the last five years and the premier, “committed to a smooth transition, and we both committed to having a beer after that’s all said and done.”

Nine incumbents lost their ridings Monday, and Pasloski promptly resigned his five-year-leadership of the Yukon Party.

With 399 votes, Pasloski came in third in his riding of Mountainview. He was beaten by the Liberals’ Jeanie Dendys who took 439 votes.

Shaunagh Stikeman of the NDP received 433 votes.

Because the vote margin between the Liberal and NDP candidates is so narrow in Mountainview, a Yukon Supreme Court judge has been called on to recount the ballots, which happens anytime a candidate wins by 10 votes or fewer.

Dendys seemed as amazed and exhilarated as anyone that she defeated the Yukon’s premier.

“It just seems very surreal that we’re here in this moment,” she said, attributing the night’s wins in large part to the upbeat campaign run by the Liberal party.

“We talked about what we can bring, not about all the other parties. We stayed positive and I think that really resonated with people,” she said.

She was humble when asked what it felt like to unseat the premier.

“I have a lot of compassion for people, respect for them,” she said. “I wasn’t in this to hurt anyone, I was in this to offer something different, and that’s what I think people voted for.”

Doris Bill, chief of Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN), said Dendys, who was director of justice in that government for the last seven years, will be a strong voice for KDFN citizens.

“I’m excited for her. She fought hard, she had a well-organized campaign,” said Bill.

“I’m so proud of her. I think she’ll work hard for our community.”

Bill added that Pasloski too, worked hard for the people of KDFN, and she said that she thanked him personally for his service Monday night.

Excitement reverberated through the large crowd of Liberal supporters that gathered at the Old Fire Hall in Whitehorse to watch the results roll in.

Hollers and applause filled the space each time the Liberals posted a win, accompanied by hugs and many pats to the backs of campaign organizers. Kisses were shared and tears (of joy) were shed. Liberal party president Devon Bailey was beaming all night long.

It was four years ago that Bailey and Silver began talking about how they would revitalize the party.

It was Silver’s idea, said Bailey, to involve a wider pool of Yukoners in those conversations about the future of the Liberals, and the Yukon Territory.

“Sandy said, ‘This is what we’re going to do, we’re going to open it up,’ and we started holding little, grassroots brainstorming sessions about what can we do to get the Yukon back on track, and from that, the team just kept growing and growing.”

It’s easy to draw parallels between the Yukon Liberals’ optimistic campaign, and the “sunny ways” that brought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to power a little over a year ago.

But Bailey maintains that the Yukon Liberals had a plan all their own.

“The vision for the Yukon Liberals is respectful relationships, doing what we say,” he said.

“A lot of people have said, ‘You’re not making any big promises in your platform,’ but I don’t believe now is the time for big promises. Those big promises will happen once we develop strong relationships with all the different levels of government.”

Both Silver and Trudeau have said that his government’s relationship with First Nations is its most important relationship. Certainly, the two leaders share that value, said Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, but agreed with Bailey that Silver paved his own path to leadership.

“Sandy was talking about the co-operative relationship before Justin was. He didn’t copy that, Sandy was already doing that, he’s always done that,” said Bagnell.

“Coming from Dawson, he has a great relationship with the First Nation there, and being in Yukon, he understands how important that is.”

Bagnell gave a shout-out to all the candidates who didn’t win seats Monday night.

“I’ve lost before and it can be really devastating,” he said.

“You put in so much effort, whether you win or lose, and so my appreciation to everyone that ran to help their community.”

Supporters of all stripes descended on the Old Fire Hall, which was done up for the occasion in red and white balloons, red table cloths and black curtains.

Some were long-time, die-hard Grits, others were cheering on a specific candidate.

Leonard Boniface came with his four-year-old son Hisani to be there for Jocelyn Curteanu. He worked on her campaign, door-knocking with the popular city councillor in her riding of Copperbelt South.

“She has a lot of experience working with people; that’s one of her passions,” he said.

Curteanu was narrowly beaten by the Yukon Party’s Scott Kent, who was a minister in Pasloski’s cabinet. She lost by just 24 votes.

Still, Curteanu’s spirits remained high throughout the night.

“I’m really comfortable with how it went, I’m really grateful for all the help that I got .... We did what we could, we did our best, and so there’s no regrets,” she said.

Would she consider running again in the next territorial election?

“I don’t know, it’s a lot of work,” she said.

“It’s like … when you just have a baby and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never do this again,’ but then after a few years, you forget.

“So I couldn’t say for now.”

Politicians peppered the room, but among them, was at least one aspiring future leader.

Alex Gray, 12, has been a familiar face at political events this fall. He was at both nights of electoral reform discussions in September, the party leaders’ forum hosted by the Council of Yukon First Nations in October, and the CBC forum last week.

He came out to the Liberal party because he wanted to be inside “the political atmosphere, and hopefully, see the winning of the election.”

Gray said he identifies with the party’s values and likes how it represents the middle ground, between left and right.

The Liberals are “a little bit of both and that’s really good,” he said.

He also liked the party’s plans for education and housing.

Gray was active during the campaign, handing out pins and buttons, and when Brad Cathers, the Yukon Party incumbent and now MLA-designate in Lake Laberge, came to speak at his school, Gray asked him about respect for First Nations governments and land claims.

“I got a couple of my friends really interested in politics too,” he said.

“We just had a class vote, which I do not know the outcome of it yet, because I was working on the actual election during the day, but I’ll be excited to see that tomorrow.”

Sharon Shorty, House speaker in the Teslin Tlingit Council government and a performer, said she was “thrilled” about the Liberals’ majority win.

She was excited that Silver had committed to holding the Yukon Forum up to four times a year, and that he would meet with all the Yukon First Nation chiefs within the first 30 days in office.

The Liberals who won, she said, “are all very awesome people, they’re going to be awesome ministers and it’s going to be a positive change.”

Resting on Shorty’s lap was a leather bag with a red and green beaded rose. Affixed to it were pins promoting candidates from all the parties: Mathieya Alatini and Jeane Lassen of the Liberals, Kevin Barr and Francis Van Kessel of the NDP, and Pasloski.

None of the candidates on her bag won his or her seat tonight, she said.

She kept trying to stick Jeanie Dendys’ pin on there, she said, but it kept popping off.

The Liberals’ only other government in the Yukon sat from 2000 to 2002 under the leadership of Pat Duncan.

Their victory ends 14 consecutive years of Yukon Party government.

See more on Silver’s night in Dawson City.