Embattled Premier Dennis Fentie refused to comment this morning on Friday's stunning defection by Brad Cathers, his former Energy, Mines and Resources minister.

"Premier Fentie will be having discussions with caucus, cabinet and the party executive and we'll have a comment after those," Roxanne Vallevand, the cabinet spokeswoman, told the Star.

In his bombshell announcement, Cathers charged that Fentie deceived the cabinet and then the public about dealings with Calgary-based ATCO, first to sell, then to privatize the territory's public utility.

Following the June 8 resignations of four Yukon Energy Corp. board members, including chair Willard Phelps, to protest what they called Fentie's secret dealings to sell off the public utility, Fentie denied all the allegations.

At the premier's last public appearance - a cabinet community tour stop in Whitehorse last Tuesday evening - Fentie suggested "... the lens of time" would prove those statements false.

But Cathers, regarded by most as Fentie's right-hand man, affirmed the speculations after announcing he was quitting the ruling Yukon Party's cabinet and caucus.

"As many have suspected, the premier lied to the public and to MLAs about his involvement in discussions with ATCO, and about what was on the table," Cathers told media of why he was walking away from the Fentie regime.

"... I am left with the choice of compromising my principles (and repeating the lies), or resigning."

This morning, Opposition Leader Arthur Mitchell again challenged Fentie to take the matter to the electorate and call an election.

"The premier has lost confidence in the public and should have called an election," said Mitchell.

"Instead, after taking the weekend to think it over, he has decided to bunker down and cling to power."

However, retiring NDP Leader Todd Hardy, whose party is readying for a Sept. 26 leadership convention to replace him, is not as enthusiastic for an election.

"There are many issues around housing and poverty that need to be addressed," Hardy said.

"Now the NDP has not supported this government ... because we feel they have not been as honest as they should be and we will not support them on any non-confidence vote, but we're not so obsessed about having an election," said Hardy.

He likened the Liberals and the conservative Yukon Party as just "two peas in a pod.

"It's just too easy to start calling for an election immediately. Now I would love an election, but I would not be blinded by it."

Attempts to contact Linda Hillier, the Yukon Party's president, were unsuccessful.

Vallevand, who also serves as the Yukon Party vice-president, offered just an e-mail address to contact Hillier, who failed to respond to the Star's queries by press time this afternoon.

Jess Staffen, daughter of the House Speaker, Yukon Party MLA Ted Staffen, also sits on the party's executive.

Commenting on Cathers' resignation, Phelps, a former government leader for the Yukon Territorial Progressive Conservative Party, which morphed into the Yukon Party in 1992 after severing ties with the federal PCs, said the current party members are "pretty much divorced" from the founding members.

Phelps said they have pretty much kept silent about Fentie's behaviour, which the former energy corporation chair and now Cathers call bullying, disrespectful and dishonest.

While Cathers' defection reduces the ruling Yukon Party to minority government status, the MLA for Lake Laberge made it clear he is not leaving the Yukon Party, just its caucus and cabinet would ask to rejoin if and when Fentie either resigns or is removed.