The past chief of the Teslin Tlingit Council has entered the Yukon Liberal Party nomination race in Pelly-Nisutlin for the coming election.

Carl Sidney announced Wednesday that he will contest the Liberal candidacy.

Blair Hogan, a business development consultant and member of the Teslin Tlingit First Nation Executive Council, is also seeking the Liberal nomination.

“I just feel that it’s time that the government recognizes First Nation governments,” Sidney said Wednesday, when asked why he was going out for a seat in the legislature.

“The past (Yukon Party) government hasn’t been doing such a great job, though they have tried.”

This isn’t Sidney’s first foray into territorial politics.

He ran for the Liberals in Pelly-Nisutlin in 2011 but was defeated by Stacey Hassard of the Yukon Party.

Hassard, who is the minister of Economic Development and the minister responsible for the Yukon Housing and the Yukon Liquor Corps., is seeking re-election in the rural riding.

Though he still has to get through the nomination meeting, Sidney said he is confident he will do better this time around.

He has been talking to people in the community about the upcoming election, he said, and he has “a lot of support” in Teslin.

Sidney finished up his four-year term as chief in July. He has since been taking time to rejuvenate before jumping into what will likely be a challenging campaign, if he gets the Liberal nomination.

Indeed, Hassard won Pelly-Nisutlin last time with 49 per cent of the vote.

By contrast, the runner-up, Carol Geddes of the NDP, drew 32 per cent of the riding’s votes, and Sidney received 13 per cent.

But Sidney has served as chief of his nation since his last territorial bid, and gained the governing experience that goes along with that.

While chief, Sidney made a submission to a parliamentary committee regarding four controversial amendments to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESSA) through Bill S-6, which came into force under the former Stephen Harper government.

YESSA outlines the process for assessing the socio-economic and environmental impacts of developments on Yukon lands and waters.

The Teslin Tlingit Council and two other First Nation governments said the amendments to YESSA violated their land claim agreements and undermined the Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA). They took their case to the Yukon Supreme Court in 2014.

“We are aware of and share in the risks and uncertainty of resorting to courts. However, the breaches of the current Conservative government in Ottawa, supported by the Yukon Party government in Yukon, are so severe we fear that we will have no other option,” Sidney said to the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee in March 2015.

“We and other Yukon First Nations need to continue to strive for respectful, effective relationships with industries throughout Yukon, and encourage sustainable development and positive growth for our citizens and all Yukoners, but to achieve our vision and respect our beliefs and values, we must ensure that our agreements are fully understood and recognized.”

The court case is on hold right now, as Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said the Liberal government will repeal the four amendments during the upcoming sitting of the House of Commons, which will begin later this month.

A statement issued Wednesday announcing Sidney’s intention to seek the Liberal nod said collaboration between the territorial government and Yukon First Nation governments is “the essential element to good governance” and that this spirit has been “extremely lacking in the present Yukon Party government.”

Sidney pressed the point in an interview with the Star Wednesday afternoon.

“The UFA agreement and land claim and self-government agreements were intended to be to the benefit of all Yukoners,” he said.

“The spirit and intent of those agreements were gone in the past, and it’s about time we have a government in place that can implement them properly.”

Sidney said he wants to see better co-operation among governments and communities.

In his riding of Pelly-Nisutlin, he added, “Ross River has more or less been neglected in the past.”

If elected, Sidney said he would push for more coverage of the UFA and self-governing agreements in school curriculums.

Expanding job opportunities for young people, particularly in the mining industry, is another issue Sidney said he would champion.

He also wants the implementation of the recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which are meant to redress harms caused by colonialism, forced assimilation and the brutal residential school system.

Sidney was involved in establishing the Teslin Tlingit Council, which comprises five clans, in the 1990s, and served as a councillor for seven years before becoming chief.

In addition to working for his First Nation, Sidney was previously a member of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assesment Board, the Yukon Salmon Subcommittee and the Yukon Heritage Board.