Yukon Party Leader Dennis Fentie and NDP Leader Todd Hardy seemed to be willing to collaborate on at least one thing at last night's CBC leaders forum: testing the stance of Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell.

'The new guy on the block needs to be checked out and we're still checking him out,' said Hardy following the two hour open-line radio forum.

'I think Mr. Mitchell has a lot more to explain. We've beat up on Mr. Fentie many, many times and he takes it. He gives it back. Mr. Mitchell really hasn't be scrutinized,' Hardy told reporters.

The leaders became the most animated during a CBC-posed question on how the various parties would be bringing ethics and integrity back to the halls of government.

'It's a very difficult subject when you start to talk about ethics and some people think their ethics are better than others,' said Hardy.

The Liberals have placed ethics and integrity at the centre of their platform, arguing that both must exist for anything else to work in government.

'Certainly most of us who go door to door hear that people expect better of us than they've seen in the past,' Mitchell told the crowd of more than 90 people at the High Country Inn.

The Liberals will enact a Yukon Ethics and Accountability Act, if elected, said Mitchell. The party has also required all its candidates to sign a code of conduct, which in vague terms promotes honesty, integrity, openness and ethical standards.

'It's the least we can do,' said Mitchell.

'It appears that Mr. Mitchell and the Liberals need a long list of guidelines to address something that is fundamental - that's called right and wrong,' said Fentie of the Liberal proposals.

The incumbent premier later told reporters Mitchell is 'running on empty' when it comes to ethics and integrity.

Since Mitchell was elected to the legislative assembly in the Copperbelt byelection in November 2005, he has been trying to misinform the public, Fentie told the forum.

The Yukon Party leader pointed to what he called misrepresented information regarding supposedly wrongdoing of the Workers Compensation Board, affidavits tabled out of context to try to prove 'some ridiculous policy' about government discrimination in hiring and trying to disguise acquisitions of conflict of interest as examples of the Liberal's conduct.

'Those are unethical approaches of conduct by any elected person. That's something the Yukon Party would never do,' said Fentie.

He added his government lived up to the ethical standards its office dictated.

'Mr. Fentie, you can't think of anything over the last four years that would be unethical?' Mitchell posed back to the party leader, earning some laughs from the audience.

Mitchell said Fentie not forcing former Klondike MLA Peter Jenkins to pay back more than $300,000 in delinquent loans as an example.

But Fentie countered that his government committed to collecting on those debts and they were collected.

'As far as Mr. Fentie saying I'm running on empty on ethics, I don't need advice from Dennis Fentie. I think the public understands that,' said Mitchell.

Hardy said Mitchell just doesn't seem to 'get it' when it comes to ethics.

The Liberals have also included the creation of whistleblower legislation in their platform.

But it was the Liberals who blocked movement on the proposed law to protect public servants reporting misconduct throughout the last sitting of the legislature.

'The Liberals refused to do it. The workers were denied legislation by the very actions of the Liberals,' said Hardy.

He added Mitchell doesn't seem to understand the concept of conflict of interest, one of the main ethics components the NDP intends to address.

'One of the greatest challenges is when a person who lives a private life and a business person goes from a private to a public forum and they can't understand the challenge of that or the role change around that,' said Hardy. 'They continue to try to operate in both worlds. That creates a conflict.'

Mitchell repeatedly pointed to Yukon Party cabinet ministers as being in conflict situations, said Hardy, but refused to acknowledge he would also be in trouble if elected to the government's side.

'I honestly don't think he gets that shift from private to public and the fact he's going to be in massive conflict,' said Hardy of Mitchell's past involvement and holdings in real estate developments.

'Mr. Hardy would have it so no one who's lived in the private sector until they're 40 or 50 years old can ever run for office,' countered Mitchell. 'I will seek the counsel of the conflicts commissioner should I be elected, I will follow that advice and I will make it public.

'If there's interests that I have that need to be sold, they will be sold.'

Fentie and Hardy also ganged up on Mitchell after the Liberal suggested government is 'poaching' too many workers from private business, complicating the labour shortage in the territory.

'Many businesses have been complaining recently that the government of Yukon is recruiting their employees. That they are head hunting,' said Mitchell. 'What we need to do is create the environment that (business) is able to retain people.'

'Poaching government employees, Arthur?' retorted Fentie. 'Is Mr. Mitchell saying the citizens don't have the right to choose whether they want a job with government or to stay in the private sector?'

Hardy agreed. 'Let's not forget the workers have a choice, a mind of their own and can move.

'The workers have a right to seek employment elsewhere. They do have a right to improve their pay scale or accept offers, to negotiate,' Hardy said, earning loud applause.

It is not a competition between the public and private sector, said Fentie. Government responsibility is to work collaboratively with the private sector to meet the challenges in Yukon's future, he said.

'It wasn't that long ago in the Yukon there were many Yukoners looking for jobs. That was a challenge back then in 2002. Today, our challenge is that we now have many jobs looking for workers.'

A Yukon Party government will increase and focus on skills and trade training, said Fentie, promoting it as an alternate path of education.

Hardy, meanwhile, promoted the establishment of a Yukon university as a way to increase the territory's labour capacity.

'We believe (it) is the next evolutionary step in the educational field in the Yukon,' he said.

Mitchell said the Liberals would develop a comprehensive worker retention strategy and enhance Yukon College's training ability.

'We think these programs and plans should have been started sooner,' he said of the current labour situation.

The question of labour was the only one of the 13 asked that focused on the economy. Questions regarding education, rural communities and relationships with both federal and first nation governments were also notably missing during the debate.

'This election is about Yukon's future, it's about leadership, it's about political stability, it's about co-operative governance and, it is indeed, about strong fiscal management,' said Fentie. The incumbent leader earned applause sporadically during the night, mostly from a notable group of prominent Yukon Party supporters sitting at the back of the room.

Social issues were asked throughout the evening, with child care, health care, poverty and affordable housing being mentioned repeatedly.

All three leaders stated they have no intention to privatize health care and committed to continue to work on addressing substance abuse.

'Have we abandoned the people who need the help the most?' asked Hardy. 'We've got to address the social ills in our society.'

The NDP leader said there must be shelters and a place for youth in dangerous situations to go. Hardy's statements on social issues earned several rounds of applause erupting from locations throughout the room.

He added when addressing day care, the workers cannot be forgotten. Their wages must be increased, he said.

Referring to notes he often read throughout the evening, Mitchell agreed. He pushed the $2.8 million day care commitment his party has placed in its platform.

Meanwhile, Fentie reminded voters of his party's promise to establish substance abuse treatment centres and programming in the territory.

Also, when asked about the environment, he promoted the Yukon Party's goal of building a climate change research centre at Yukon College.

'The Yukon today is a better place, because of the plan the Yukon Party implemented through the course of our mandate,' said Fentie, asking voters to allow the incumbent government to continue to implement it's vision for the territory.

But what the Yukon Party is doing is reannouncing promises it made four years ago and has yet to complete, said Hardy. The Yukon Party is simply hoping the Yukon public won't notice, he added.

'Where there should be optimism, instead there is great concern. Concern about the economy, child care, health care and the environment. Quite frankly, government has let us down and we need a change.'

The Liberals are trying to buy votes, added Hardy, referring to the more than $67 million in election promises the party has made.

'We have taken the time and done the hard work to cost out our commitments,' said Mitchell. 'We aren't campaigning on platitudes or unsupported promises. Our campaign has been about real ideas and real solutions to complex problems.'

The debate was the last major meeting of the three leaders prior to the vote on Tuesday.