Craig Tuton, the longtime campaign fixer for the federal Conservatives and Yukon Party, today threw his support behind Darrell Pasloski's bid to succeed outgoing Premier Dennis Fentie as leader of the Yukon Party.

"I'd much rather that somebody who's worked his way up, and Darrell's done that, he's been a real trooper, he's been working a long time for this,” said Tuton, who managed Pasloski's failed bid to win Yukon's federal seat in Parliament in 2008.

"I truly believe that Darrell's a hard worker,” Tuton said. "I witnessed it firsthand when he was running in federal politics – he always puts the interests of Yukoners ahead of his own interests.”

Tuton's backing of Pasloski comes amidst two tales of how Taylor, and his campaign manager Scott Kent – formerly a member of the Yukon Liberal Party's election readiness team – ended up in the Yukon Party's camp.

While much of the Yukon Party's old guard is said to be backing Taylor, along with Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor, conjecture as to who courted whom for Taylor's loyalty bubbles.

Liberal researcher and campaign insider Jason Cunning disputed Kent's earlier statements that Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell approached Taylor several times to run for the Grits.

Yesterday, Cunning told the Star Taylor's ambitions went beyond being a Liberal candidate. After hearing Taylor out, along with then-Liberal election team member Kent, Cunning said he declined his offer.

"Scott Kent said, 'Look, Rod Taylor is interested in running as a Liberal', so Scott and I went to his house in August of 2009,” Cunning said.

"We had a discussion with Taylor for about an hour or so, and he very early on said ‘I want to be leader' and both Scott and I said, ‘We have a leader so that's not open.'”

Taylor then suggested that the Liberals could run a field of Liberal hopefuls, Taylor included, and from those elected, pick a new leader.

"We said ‘No',” Cunning recalled, somewhat bemused at the thought of floating a leaderless political ship for a territorial election. "We said, ‘You can't present a group of candidates without a leader and offer that up to the electorate .... That's not how the system works.'”

The pair left Taylor's house, Cunning said, and never considered Taylor's offer of allegiance again.

"The big point is, (Taylor) wanted to be the leader and we said that's not happening,” Cunning said. "And he did not want to run in Lake Laberge, because he said he didn't think he could beat (Yukon Party member) Brad Cathers, who was an independent at the time.”

And of Kent abandoning the Yukon Liberal Party?

"I'm not surprised, but I'm disappointed, but Kent obviously had a major policy disagreement over the Peel,” Cunning said.

In December 2010, the Liberals backed the Peel Planning Commission's recommendations that 80 per cent of the 68,000-square-kilometre watershed be off limits to development. The NDP took a similar stance, but the Yukon Party government rejected the commission's findings.

That same month, Taylor, then-chair of the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon, slammed the government for its position.

"For the government to disregard it, because they do not agree with its recommendations, shows contempt for the planning process and the Yukoners who contributed to it,” Taylor told the Star at the end of last year.

After announcing his intentions to lead the Yukon Party, Taylor recanted those comments, explaining he spoke without understanding the land-use planning process.

Taylor now says the process should run its course and the economic costs of protecting the watershed be fully considered – a position in line with the Yukon Party government's actions to date.

Taylor has also promised to separate the Finance portfolio from the premier's office – Fentie is also Minister of Finance. He also pledged a $500,000 incentive fund to promote mining innovations made in the territory.

Yesterday, Taylor offered his version of the August 2009 meeting described by Cunning.

"There were two representatives from the Liberal party, they sat in my living room and they discussed my involvement in the party,” said Taylor. "I honestly don't know what else to say, and really, that's the end of it.

"And I hope that in the future we would have more substantive issues to discuss that are of real importance,” Taylor added.

Asked if Kent was one of the two Liberal representatives, Taylor declined to comment.

"I'm not going to answer that question. What happened that day was a confidential,” he said.

Taylor's success in attracting Yukon Party interest in his political caché stands in stark contrast to the party's lack of success in its own fishing expedition for a new leader.

Whitehorse city councillor Ranj Pillai told the Star he was approached by the Yukon Party, "and the innuendo that I could lead the party was definitely there,” said Pillai.

But the longtime Liberal's allegiances were not on the auction block.

"I haven't made a decision about a political future or running in the territorial election,” said Pillai. "But as the past-president of the Yukon Liberal Party, I'm solid on my values, and if I were to run, that's who I would run for.”

And Pillai's commitment to the Liberal brand mirrors Tuton's preference for a longtime conservative to helm the Yukon Party, versus a relative unknown who joined the party last month, as Taylor did.

"I'm a longtime party member so I speak from a different voice. I'm a very party person and I like to see commitment to the party,” Tuton said.

"But on the other hand, politics is about opportunities ... it's big democracy.”

Tuton's comments harken back to 2002, when Fentie did a political 180 and went from NDP MLA to leader of the Yukon Party.

Today, Fentie is the longest-serving premier in Canada and will bow out of politics on a high note – with the Yukon economy humming and the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

"But I haven't heard Taylor say, whether he would be a Yukon Party candidate even if he isn't successful (in the leadership race),” Tuton added.

Both Pasloski and Taylor have stated that they would seek an endorsement to run as a candidate for Yukon Party regardless of the leadership convention's outcome.

Former Economic Development minister Jim Kenyon, who was stripped of his cabinet portfolios at the beginning of May, could not be reached for comment.

Neither he nor Fentie have spoken to the Star since Kenyon's cabinet postings – including minister responsible for the lotteries commission and the housing and liquor corporations – were given to YP-Klondike MLA Steve Nordick.

Tuton had kind words for Kenyon – that he brought a lot to the table and was integral in attracting foreign mining interests to the Yukon – but he would not speculate on Kenyon's chances or his future.

Whoever replaces Fentie at the Yukon Party's May 28 leadership convention, must call a territorial election no later than Oct. 14.