Will he stay or will he go?

Premier Dennis Fentie preferred to leave that question unanswered when speaking to media Saturday during the Yukon Party's annual general meeting.

"You'll all have to have some patience because that announcement will be coming,” said Fentie of his political future.

"There's a number of days ahead of us that this will all become clear.”

Fentie became the longest-serving premier in Canada after Gordon Campbell resigned as B.C.'s premier in November 2010.

Whether he will seek another mandate from the Yukon Party to try to lead the right-of-centre party to its third consecutive majority government remains a mystery, even to those closest to Fentie.

But last Thursday, two days before the ruling party's AGM, its executive started the clock ticking toward a leadership contest to take place anywhere between 45 days and 180 days from April 14.

In the meantime, Fentie, at the behest of caucus, will continue to serve as the party's interim leader.

While Fentie continues to keep his political future a secret, he welcomes a leadership review regardless of what he intends to do.

"One of the main strategies ... around trying to accomplish (a third consecutive majority government) is to build and increase the ranks of the party,” he said.

"Part of this whole process with leadership campaigns does exactly that.

"Memberships are being sold, interest is being solicited, and out of that comes the excitement and the momentum that builds in choosing a leader.”

Asked if the party is better off with or without him at the helm, Fentie remained a vault, blaming opposition parties for starting rumours about potential successors.

"I don't think it's a question of better off or not better off; it's a question of a step-by-step process, leading us to what's coming this fall – a general election in the Yukon,” said Fentie of a trip to the polls that must be called no later than Oct. 14.

"But the rumour mill is churning all the time and there's those in the opposition ranks that try to fuel the rumour mill .... At this time, nobody has declared that I know of.”

And Fentie's majority Yukon Party government – first elected in 2002, then re-elected in 2006 – is the second longest-sitting government after B.C.'s Liberal Party.

Momentarily hobbled to minority government status in the summer of 2009 by the defection of former Energy, Mines and Resources minister Brad Cathers, Fentie lured wandering MLA John Edzerza back to the Yukon Party and restored his majority government.

For Edzerza's return – after running for re-election in 2006 under the NDP banner, then opting to sit as an independent – Fentie rewarded Edzerza with the Environment portfolio.

But Cathers' self-imposed exile to the opposition benches to sit as an independent, after four Yukon Energy Corp. directors resigned to protest Fentie's attempt to privatize the public utility, has dogged the premier.

When he resigned, Cathers accused Fentie of lying to his caucus and the public about negotiations with ATCO, and the potential deal to privatize the Yukon's public utility for pennies on the dollar.

Cathers also suggested there were other disgruntled Yukon Party MLAs who were contemplating leaving caucus too, but the remaining caucus members stayed loyal to Fentie.

Facing down a potential leadership review last May – brought on largely by the ATCO affair and near-disintegration of the Yukon Party government – Fentie successfully appealed to the party's membership to hold off on a review until the spring of 2011.

With such a review on the horizon, many wonder who could fill Fentie's shoes.

From the current batch of nine Yukon Party MLAs, Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor is being touted as a potential successor to Fentie.

There are also rumblings that Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Patrick Rouble and Darrell Pasloski, the territory's failed 2008 federal Conservative candidate, are considering runs.

In a previous interview with the Star, Pasloski said he has been in talks with the party, but would not elaborate on what was discussed.

In a brief interview with the Star last Thursday afternoon during the unveiling of plans for the new F.H. Collins Secondary School, Rouble hinted at the possibility of a leadership run.

"One of the great things about following politicians is you get to hear us make announcements,” Rouble said. "So you might have to stay tuned for an announcement.”