The Conservative Party of Canada is up and running in the Yukon.

The new right-wing party, born out of a merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party, held its first organizational meeting in the Yukon on Sunday.

According to local lawyer Darcy Tkachuk, fewer than 40 people attended the founding meeting of the Yukon arm of the national party.

Tkachuk said there were a number of people at the gathering who had belonged to one of the two now-defunct parties.

Tkachuk himself was a vice-president with the Yukon executive of the Progressive Conservative Party. He was also was one of the people who voted in favour of the merger with the Alliance.

The people at the meeting elected a board of directors. Under the rules of the new party, said Tkachuk, the board then met and chose the executive from within its ranks.

The new Yukon president of the Conservative Party is Michael Lauer, who was the last Yukon president of the federal P.C. Party before the merger.

Tkachuk was selected to the same spot he held within the old P.C. Party vice-president.

The other executive members are: Joshua Hunt, secretary; Elaine Kennedy, fundraising chair; and Tony Fekete, the election readiness chair. Don McKenzie, who worked on the Alliance's local campaign in 2000, is the membership chair.

The other members of the board of directors are: Drew Dunn, Mark Noel, Gordon Gee and Paul Rogan.

Tkachuk said the new party is getting ready for the next federal election which is expected to come this spring. He said the Conservatives will probably have a local candidate picked soon.

'We will be ready for a spring election.'

The Conservative Party will select its new leader at a convention Mar. 19-21.

Former Alliance leader Stephen Harper and former Ontario provincial cabinet minister Tony Clement are the only declared candidates in the race.

However, billionaire heiress businesswoman Belinda Stronach is expected to enter the contest this week.