Former Conservative government leader Willard Phelps says his relationship with the late Erik Nielsen dates back to the 1950s, when Nielsen was first elected MP.

The two men knew each other from practising law in a "very small jurisdiction," sometimes appearing against each other in court, Phelps said in an interview Friday afternoon.

"I found him very good to work with," said Phelps, who briefly served as government leader in 1985.

"I enjoyed a good working relationship with him. I found him to be somebody who cared about the Yukon and worked very hard for it."

Phelps' working relationship with Nielsen continued when he entered politics, winning the territorial Conservative leadership on March 9, 1985.

The pair were in frequent collaboration during Phelps' time as the Yukon government's chief negotiator of land claims agreements during the 1980s.

"A lot of Yukoners will know (Nielsen) was a giant in politics not only here but in Canada," said Phelps.

"He was a true Progressive Conservative. He firmly believed in smaller government and lower taxes and all the traditional conservative values."

Phelps said Nielsen was instrumental in enacting many important changes in the Yukon, such as building the current Whitehorse airport terminal, which opened in 1986, and establishing a more independent legislative assembly.

"We went from being more or less an advisory body to an independent body," said Phelps. "(Nielsen) was a champion of self-government for Yukoners.

There's just an awful lot that he did. He contributed a lot to the Yukon as we know it now."

Phelps noted Nielsen has "tremendous loyalty" from many communities such as Old Crow, the residents of which voted "almost unanimously for (Nielsen).

"A lot of people may forget that in the early days, he was very progressive," said Phelps. Nielsen led the way in helping first nation members with issues such as housing and obtaining the right to vote, said Phelps.

Former Yukon commissioner Jack Cable recalls Nielsen as being "quite well-respected in the community."

Cable worked for Nielsen for two years in the early 1970s and said Friday afternoon he liked Nielsen on a personal level.

"We went different ways in our politics, but I liked him as a man," said Cable, who sought the Liberal nomination for the Yukon in the 1980s, losing to Don Branigan, the late former mayor of Whitehorse.

"He certainly put the Yukon on the political map," said Cable, who went on to become a Liberal MLA.

"I think he won 10 elections. He obviously had people behind him."

Cable also noted that Nielsen had a "fine nose for democracy."

Yukon MP Larry Bagnell released a statement Friday afternoon saying he was "saddened" by Nielsen's sudden passing.

"There are very few MPs in the history of Canada who served for 30 years," Bagnell said of Nielsen's 1957-87 time as an MP.

"He showed Yukoners that even though they are from the farthest most northern distant corner of the nation from Ottawa, they can rise to the highest positions in the land. In his senior role in cabinet, he ensured that the Yukon and the North were never overlooked.

"All Yukoners and Canadians should never forget his monumental service to our nation."

Local lawyer Shayne Fairman worked for the Liberals in the 1979, 1980 and 1984 election campaigns. He was the party's youth chair in the 1980 campaign and, for the 1984 campaign, helped with Liberal Ron Veale's unsuccessful candidacy against Nielsen.

"I had my own personal dealings with Mr. Nielsen," Fairman said Friday.

"As I'm sure many have told you, Erik Nielsen was a fierce partisan political opponent, formidable in a campaign.

"A testament to that was that he was elected and re-elected on so many occasions, he was never defeated when he was running federally ... I always

had respect for him.

"As partisan as he was, and with our relationship as political opponents, in university (Queen's, in Kingston, Ont.), when I was writing my undregrad thesis on constitutional development of the Yukon, I met with him and interviewed him in his Ottawa office for my thesis.

"He took the opportunity to speak with me and he quite delighted in publishing a picture of the Young Liberal coming to him in 1985 for help ... my dad (Tom) still laughs at that one."

By Sarah Vanderwolf

and Jason Unrau

Star Reporters