'I want to extend to Yukoners the message that we have every reason to be optimistic about Yukon's future,' says Premier Dennis Fentie.

It was less than a week until Christmas. The fall sitting of the legislative assembly had ended. Most of the MLAs had headed off on holidays or to spend time with family.

Fentie hadn't yet.

He may be wearing a black leather jacket rather than his traditional suit and tie, and Duke, his gigantic Bernese Mountain dog, may be keeping him company in his office, but he is still all business on this day last week.

He has meetings scheduled one-after-the-other all day. But the premier agreed to sit down with the Star to reflect back on what has been a tumultuous year for his Yukon Party government.

Yukon Party candidate Cynthia Kearns failed to win the Copperbelt seat in the Nov. 21 byelection held in the wake of Haakon Arntzen's departure. Not only did she not win the seat, but she came in a distant third, taking in only 19.5 per cent of the vote, or 181 ballots.

Peter Jenkins, the former deputy premier, government house leader, Environment minister and Health and Social Services minister, left the party.

Despite the fact Jenkins was a bit of a black eye for the Yukon Party with his more-than $308,000 in delinquent loans, most of Fentie's political adversaries acknowledge the man was a political heavyweight who was seen as the premier's right-hand man.

Jenkins also didn't leave the party quietly. Since joining the opposition as an independent member, he has grilled the government on various programs and policies, tabled legislation, asked for public inquiries and demanded the government acknowledge it bears a 'significant amount of responsibility' for the issues concerning his Klondike riding, Dawson City.

To top it off, the governing Yukon Party is lagging behind in opinion polls, resting at only 25 per cent of the popular vote, while the NDP tops out at 35 per cent. The Liberals also aren't far behind, with 31 per cent.

But the Yukon is heading into an election year and Fentie enthusiastically expresses optimism about the year-that-was, that he'd like all Yukoners to have.

'Given the circumstances and what has transpired over the last 12 months, I maintain that the Yukon Party is still going forward,' he says. 'The government hasn't deviated. It's still on target.'

He also says he doesn't necessarily see the results of the byelection and the numbers in the polls as an indication of what may happen in the 2006 general election, which he must call by November.

'The only poll that counts, in fact the poll that is critical, is the election poll,' he says. 'All the other polling, well and good, but I do not take it at face value or absolute.'

Only 58 per cent of the registered voters turned out for the Copperbelt byelection.

Fentie says although that kind of voter turnout is low and rather disappointing, it could be good news for the Yukon Party.

'Why did over 40 per cent of the eligible voters in the riding of Copperbelt not bother to vote? That's a positive, though, for the government side, because we know we have room to work.'

The Yukon Party continues to hold a 'healthy majority on balance between rural Yukon and the city of Whitehorse,' he says.

In a recent DataPath Systems poll, 37 per cent of the rural respondents indicated they would be voting for the Yukon Party, well above the NDP at 31 per cent and the Liberals at 23 per cent.

Fentie says the numbers in the latest polls aren't that different from what they were showing leading into the November 2002 election.

An October 2002, DataPath Systems poll found 33 per cent of respondents were going to vote Yukon Party.

On election night that year, the party managed to garner 40.4 per cent of the popular vote.

But Fentie says there might be an 'added advantage' to the Yukon Party not winning the Copperbelt byelection.

'Mr. (Arthur) Mitchell, the newly-elected leader of the Liberal party, will have to show what he's all about and what he intends to bring to leadership with respects to taking this territory in a direction that will provide a bright and vibrant future for our citizens,' he says.

So when will the general election be called? The NDP spent both legislative sittings of 2005 asking that question.

'I have absolutely no thoughts right now on when an election would be called,' says Fentie.

'There are a number of things we want to complete yet and there are some major initiatives that are ongoing that the government has started and we want to ensure that those continue to evolve in a positive manner.

'We're going to continue on in delivering the goods in this mandate.'

Many of the initiatives Fentie wants his government to continue to work on prior to the election call are also what he says are some of the biggest achievements of 2005.

The creation of the Yukon chapter of the Northern Strategy and the work to finalize it with the federal government, decisions regarding the Northern Economic Development Fund, the Northern Health Accord and the territorial health access fund and increases to the territorial funding formula are all achievements Yukoners should look on with optimism, he says.

They aren't just achievements brought about by the work of Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, he adds.

'These things were done at first ministers' (meetings). We, the Yukon government, engaged with our MP to involve him in these processes, encouraging him to support us in our efforts.'

At a more directly territorial level, Fentie says he is proud of the government's work on the education reform project and correctional reform.

Continued work on the feasibility study for the Alaska-Canada rail link and strategy development on the Alaska Highway pipeline also top his list.

Fentie also feels there has been some important pieces of legislation brought forward in 2005. They include amendments to the Income Tax Act and its provisions for an energy relief rebate, the Family Violence Prevention Act and its clearer definition of abuse and harsher penalties for abusers, and the Co-operation in Governance Act, which formalizes the government-to-government relation and work between the territorial government and first nations.

'It's an impressive list in terms of scope and the number of things the government has been able to do, and I think it shows clearly that this government, the Yukon Party government, has not deviated from its plan or vision it set out at the start of the mandate.'

But the work that tops Fentie's list of achievements are also initiatives that have come under fire from the opposition parties over 2005.

The NDP and the Liberals have claimed the Yukon Party is not doing enough in some areas, exaggerating their success in others and predominantly taking credit for other people's or other governments' work.

'It's not good enough to accuse the government of not doing anything for the economy,' says Fentie. 'It's not good enough to accuse the government of not doing anything in health care or other social fabrics. It's not good enough to accuse the government of not doing anything in education, because the evidence proves otherwise.

'The opposition has a responsibility here to tell Yukoners what it is that they would have done and what it is they intend to do.

'The opposition has failed in terms of living up to its responsibility to provide a clear alternative to Yukoners of what they would do on any of these issues.'

Always the politician, Fentie says his biggest disappointment of 2005 isn't that the Dawson City bridge didn't get built or that the party lost the byelection or that initiatives such as the Children's Act review or the WCB regulations review are behind schedule.

His biggest disappointment of 2005 is the behaviour of the opposition parties, he says.

'I'm quite disappointed in the conduct of the opposition parties who continue on this ridiculous theme of ethics,' he says.

'Let's look at what ethics means. It's the study or philosophy of human conduct and given the fact that that definition is very clear, the opposition parties are then accusing the government of wrongdoing. That is human conduct.

'They have no evidence whatsoever, and they know it, when it comes to wrongdoing.

'If the opposition wants to provide the evidence of wrongdoing, they should do so in the public. Make the accusations. Provide the burden of proof. Otherwise, if they continue on this tact, it's their ethics that are in question, because they are misinforming the public through these accusations that have no burden of proof whatsoever.'

In press releases following the Dec. 19 conclusion of the fall sitting, the NDP and the Liberals claimed the current priority of Yukoners is ethics in government and ethics in leadership.

Fentie, however, says Yukoners are more concerned with the policies and issues surrounding health care, education and the environment. And they are all areas the Yukon Party is working on, he says.

'The suggestion that this government has ignored the environment, again, is ludicrous, and is again, misinformation by the opposition,' say the premier, who placed the Environment in his own portfolio following Jenkins' departure from cabinet.

The government's work on establishing conservation areas and parks, such as Tombstone and Fishing Branch, are examples of the work, he says.

'Our government has chosen in terms of protection and conservation to follow our obligations under the land claims, not create politically flawed processes.

'One of the reasons we put the department in the premier's office is because of the importance we place in the environment.'

The government is also working at using money received in the Northern Health Accord to try to recruit and retain family doctors, says Fentie. There have also been advancements in the implementation and delivery of primary health care in the Yukon, he says.

So what does all this mean going into 2006?

'Going into an election year requires a change of focus to some degree, because we must recognize that as politicians, there is a lot of work in an election year to prepare, and that means we must engage with the public more.'

Fentie says he plans to 'reduce time in offices' and spend more time 'out there in the public' in 2006.

'I want to pass on to Yukoners that their government, this Yukon Party government, will continue to apply the work ethic and the commitment that we put forward in the last election.

'We have continued to deliver on our plan and our vision. The results, we will allow Yukoners to judge, but they certainly are there. They are tangible and are readily seen, should one wish to choose to look.

'The territory is now headed in a direction where we have a balance between the economy and the environment, where we have a strong social conscience and a major focus on our social safety net and our education system and our health care system.

'Frankly, we can only do this effectively in the long term if we continue to build our economy, because at the end of the day we need more private sector involvement in this territory, through economic growth, to help us deliver further in areas important to Yukoners in terms of the social side of the ledger.

'All in all, as we continue forward, we feel that the Yukon Party is a good choice, an alternative to the opposition parties, in what we can do and what we expect to do in the future for the Yukon.'