The fall sitting of the Yukon's legislative assembly will begin Sept. 21, Premier Dennis Fentie announced Friday, a month earlier than in previous years.

MLAs from 17 of the territory's 18 ridings are expected to be in attendance on opening day, but Whitehorse Centre – whose seat has been vacant since its MLA, Todd Hardy, died July 28 – will be unrepresented.

According to the territory's Elections Act, the premier has 180 days to call a byelection after a seat is vacated, and Fentie dismisses criticism that convening the legislature before holding a byelection is undemocratic.

"The Opposition is going to make wild claims that the government doesn't respect the people (of Whitehorse Centre),” Fentie told the Star. "But it's the Opposition that has disrespected the riding.”

Fentie went on to list the government's investment in Whitehorse Centre – both in term of infrastructure and safety measures – that the Yukon Liberal Party has voted against, many of which are contained in current and former years' budgets.

As he has in stated in previous interviews, the premier again insisted that in the current vacancy interim, voters in the downtown riding would be well represented by the sitting government and today added any Whitehorse Centre resident with concerns "can contact my office directly.”

Asked how Yukoners could convey opinions or ideas in the absence of the government's annual community tours, cancelled due to the early fall sitting, the premier provided a similar answer.

New Democratic Party Leader Liz Hanson, acclaimed to the party's leadership last September but without a seat in the assembly, said voters she has talked to offer a contrary view to the premier's.

"What I've heard from both Whitehorse Centre and across the territory is that it's really arrogant for the Yukon Party government to presume that it can represent a riding without asking (voters there) first,” Hanson said.

"The core of the reaction I'm hearing is, ‘Who's he to tell us who is going to represent us?' and I agree.

"Obviously, that's going to sound self-serving, as I've put my name forward (to contest Whitehorse Centre's seat) but I'm prepared to take the outcome, positive or negative, on a political level for the NDP.”

Longtime Liberal Kirk Cameron, the current president of the Liberal party and one of two Liberal members interested in winning the Whitehorse Centre nomination, said the best person to represent the downtown riding is one elected by its constituents.

"When it comes to raising issues that are important to downtown, nobody does it better than the person who has the vote of the downtown residents,” Cameron said.

"And ... downtown residents want representation as soon as possible, and it's not just for when the legislature is sitting ... but the riding needs a representative for when it's not. To me that's critical, as being there to hear concerns or issues of constituents is the main part of an MLA's job.”

Cameron declined to speculate on whether Fentie would call a general election at the end of the fall sitting.

Hanson said she does not think the premier would go to the polls a year before his government's fall 2011 mandate ends.

While an early election would spare Fentie a mandatory leadership review by the Yukon Party members that he pledged to hold at the party's 2011 spring convention, the premier indicated he would stay the course.

"In 2006, voters elected us to the office to work until the fall of 2011, and you can't rule out all the possibilities because things happen,” Fentie said.

"That said, I have no problem with the leadership review. That's why I called it myself. Those things are constructive and good for political parties.”