Politics continue to be a rocky road for deputy premier Tracy-Anne McPhee.

She has been embroiled in the Hidden Valley Elementary School sex abuse scandal for months now.

While she has had comparatively little to say directly to the public, she survived a call for her resignation from cabinet that passed in the legislature last fall by simply ignoring it.

At the time, Premier Sandy Silver proclaimed to the opposition parties that as premier, “I decide who is in my cabinet.”

Both opposition parties voted in favour of the motion.

Now, an opinion poll commissioned by the Yukon Party has brought the issue to the forefront once again.

“A new poll conducted by Léger and commissioned by the Yukon Party has found that 64 per cent of Yukoners want deputy premier Tracy-Anne McPhee to resign over her mishandling of the Hidden Valley Elementary School sexual abuse scandal,” the official Opposition reported.

“This comes after the revelations that the deputy premier became aware in 2019 of the sexual abuse that occurred at Hidden Valley and failed to notify parents.”

(While McPhee was the minister of Education, the department failed to notify parents of the school community of a sexual interference charge laid against a then-education assistant at the school in 2019. He was later jailed for the offence, and more charges against him are before the courts.)

Yukon Party MLA Scott Kent said “that the majority of Yukoners want the deputy premier to resign for her failure to live up to her responsibilities as Education minister (until 2021) is not a surprise,” said Kent, the Copperbelt South MLA.

“That not a single person in the Liberal government lost their job over the fact that they were aware of what happened and did not notify parents is a complete failure of accountability by this government.

“The Liberals should do the right thing and listen to the express will of Yukoners and the legislative assembly by having the deputy premier resign from cabinet.”

The party also said “the polling also found that since the Liberals signed the Confidence and Supply Agreement with the NDP (in April 2021), their popularity has declined significantly.

“The Yukon Party is in first place with 37 per cent, the NDP are in second with 32 per cent, and the Liberals are in third place with 28 per cent.”

Those are similar numbers to an opinion poll released last spring just prior to the March election call.

The poll, conducted between Jan. 13 and 19, consisted of phone interviews with 500 Yukoners. It was conducted by live-agent telephone data collection from Léger’s virtual call centre in Winnipeg.

The margin of error is 4.35 per cent 19 times out of 20.

The Liberal government issued a terse response to the poll.

“We will not be commenting on a Yukon Party-commissioned poll,” it said in a statement.

“Our focus as a government remains on protecting the health and safety of Yukoners through the COVID-19 pandemic and the substance use health emergency.”

NDP Leader Kate White offered a brief comment on the situation late this morning.

“I haven’t seen the poll, but I thought we made it clear what our position on this was back in the fall when we voted,” she told the Star.

“I thought we did the heavy lifting then, making it clear we didn’t think Tracy should be in cabinet.

“It’s a Yukon Party poll, so I take that for what it is worth.”