After months of speculation, Premier Dennis Fentie settled any doubts about his political future today and announced he is stepping down as leader of the Yukon Party.

"I will not be running in the fall election so it would be redundant to run for the leadership,” Fentie told the Star early this afternoon from Yellowknife, where he is attending a meeting of northern premiers.

"And I will not in any shape or form, involve myself with the leadership race.”

The 60-year-old Fentie, who was first elected to the legislative assembly as a New Democrat in 1996, will exit Yukon politics after nearly a decade as the territory's premier, amidst a wave of economic good times, a new gold rush and the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

After a trio of declarations from Yukon Party leader hopefuls, Fentie said the future of the party is in good hands, at least with respect to two of the candidates.

"Mr. (Rod) Taylor and Mr. (Darrell) Pasloski position the party quite well and give us a good balance and a good representation of the diversity of the political spectrum,” said Fentie.

Yesterday, cabinet heavyweight Elaine Taylor stood behind Rod Taylor (no relation), outgoing chair of the territory's tourism association, when he officially announced his candidacy.

Also in the room were Archie Lang, minister of Community Services; and House Speaker Ted Staffen.

While Taylor said he would like to have them as supporters, their presence was difficult to ignore.

"Neither Ted nor Archie have come out publicly and endorsed me,” Taylor told the Star this morning, unaware of Fentie's decision. "I would appreciate their support, but right now they were there strictly as observers.”

With Fentie's intentions as yet unknown, Lang's interest in the tourism lobbyist and prominent tour operator's bid suggested that if Fentie had wanted to stay, he was staring down the biggest fight of his political career.

Fentie, who remained tightlipped about his political future until today, said he considered the consequences to himself and to the party had he decided to defend his leadership.

"I thought long and hard about that and reflected on that but with the experience over a number of years

I've been on this position and observed some of my colleagues in other jurisdictions and what resulted in certain scenarios,” Fentie explained. "I felt it was in the best interest to (call the current leadership race) last spring.

"The meter was running on this day as soon as I took office in 2002,” he added.

And the scrappy premier has opted to bow out gracefully and on a political high, rather than end up battered and potentially booted out of the job.

Last week, Economic Development Minister Jim Kenyon got the leadership ball rolling for the ruling party by being the first to toss his hat into the ring.

Though not considered a serious contender for the party's leadership, Kenyon leveled criticism at Fentie for delaying his decision and, more notably, the premier's overbearing management style that included "reading the Riot Act” to cabinet and caucus.

Fentie has been criticized for running the government from his corner office – most notably over the failed privatization of Yukon Energy in which the premier and Kenyon clashed. In the end Fentie stripped Kenyon of his ministerial responsibility for the public utility and this week Kenyon told the Star decisions affecting the Energy Corporation were made without his knowledge.

Asked about Kenyon's comments, Fentie said Kenyon should stick to the task at hand.

"Mr. Kenyon's job now is to convince the members of his party that he is the one to lead it,” said Fentie.

Pasloski, Conservative Party runner up to Liberal-incumbent Larry Bagnell in the 2008 federal election, is also in the race to replace Fentie, but he got off to a stunted start.

Pasloski's initial indecision – his campaign manager Darren Parsons used the media last week to goad Pasloski to finally committing – was capped with Pasloski's dubious claim that he influenced Ottawa's $71 million investment in Mayo B.

And just as the Yukon Party lured Fentie from the New Democrats in 2002, the right-of-centre political force is attracting some from the political centre.

Rod Taylor's campaign manager, Scott Kent, was a former Grit cabinet minister under Pat Duncan's short-lived government.

Not only has Kent switched camps, but Taylor said he rebuffed several overtures from Arthur Mitchell to run for the Liberals in the looming territorial election.

And this morning, Taylor suggested even more Liberal defections are on the way, if not on the hustings, then at the ballot box.

"I have had a number of calls from a number of people who consider themselves Liberals, but at the end of the day say the party means less to them than the people who are leading it,” he said.

Whoever takes the reins of the Yukon Party in the aftermath of its May 28 leadership convention, has until Oct. 14 to call the election.

Additional challengers have until May 7 to declare their intentions.

Fentie stays on as premier until an undetermined transition period concludes following the leadership convention.

Today's editorial on the leadership race was prepared before the premier made his remarks to the Star.