After a feverish 28-day campaign for the leadership of the Yukon, Friday became MLA moving day at the legislature.

On the ground floor, the Yukon Party, which won an 11-seat majority government last Tuesday, has hung on to its old digs.

Downstairs, the offices of the official Opposition and third party looked like orientation day at a college dormitory, with both parties packing up and preparing to make the 3 1/2-foot move next door.

There was a dour mood at Liberal headquarters.

Boxes were piled high against the walls; a lone Che Guevara poster hung against a bare office wall.

It's a stressful time for the Liberals. The party suffered a substantial loss in the election, plunging from five seats to just two. The loss has been felt by everyone.

"I didn't have grey hair before this,” said Jude Layzell, the longtime receptionist for the Liberal party. She has been working for the party since 1992, when Jack Cable was the only Liberal MLA, representing the former riding of Riverside.

"It sucks,” she said meekly.

Like many Liberal staffers, Layzell's future with the party is still unclear.

"The (caucus support) budget is a lot smaller now,” she said. "They don't know what they are doing with staff yet.”

There were just a few Liberals still hanging around at the party office on Friday afternoon. One was Darius Elias, the re-elected MLA for Vuntut Gwitchin and a candidate for the party's interim leadership.

"It's a bit of a sombre move,” said Elias. "But you know, Yukoners have spoken, and I will do the best I can with with the cards I have been dealt,” he said. He then placed the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation flag into a cardboard box alongside a child's drawing and an autographed photo of former NHL hockey player/

executive Pat Quinn.

"I was hoping to move upstairs. Sideways is a little hard to take, but I am looking forward to working with (Klondike MLA-designate) Sandy Silver and proving that northern Yukon still has fire in its belly.”

Arthur Mitchell resigned as Liberal leader after losing his seat in Copperbelt North to the Yukon Party's Currie Dixon.

Elias said he is still in discussions with the former leader and Silver about who will be the party's interim leader.

The rest of the 10 offices in the office of the official Opposition were completely empty.

"We didn't deserve this,” said Doug Tremblay, a former party researcher. "Voters are not wrong; another Liberal government just wasn't meant to be, but it is demoralizing in a lot of ways, and what's really bizarre is that since the election, we've had so many people wish us well; people have been overwhelmed with gratitude.”

There is a predictably lighter aura hanging over the NDP offices.

Leader Liz Hanson was still at the office, along with defeated Riverdale North candidate Peter Lesniak.

Looking relaxed in her characteristic green sweater and bright orange scarf Friday, Hanson had already neatly packed away her office and has her eye on a new corner office across the hall, with more sunlight and a view of tent city.

Hanson said she is looking forward to hosting "MLA 101” in the new office. The NDP has four first-time MLAs who will have to get up to speed before assuming official Opposition status.

Hanson is looking forward to pressuring the new government for a full financial audit of the last government's spending, tackling the tent city issue before winter and looking into the voting process, which she said left too many Yukoners stranded on election day.

She said she'll do nothing until the office is smudged.

"There has been a lot of sadness in the area. We agreed to do a traditional smudging of the offices after Steve (Cardiff) died, and we'll do that (today), before we move in,” she said.

The NDP has lost two former members in the last two years: Cardiff, who died in a highway collision last July 6 and former leader Todd Hardy, who lost a battle with leukemia on July 28, 2010.

Hanson planned to perform the ceremony along with Elias and other Liberal and NDP staff.

"We are able to work together, you know,” she said.

They'll have to. The Liberals and NDP combined for just eight seats in the19-seat legislature.

But it's not all politics on moving day.

The parties will officially switch offices this afternoon.

For one side, the move is akin to a funeral march, commemorating one of the greatest falls in its party's history.

For the other, it is a much sought-after opportunity to challenge a younger and invigorated Yukon Party as the official Opposition.

For those behind the scenes of the territorial government, the move represents the end of a political era, with uncertainty ahead.

Layzell looked tiny sitting at her desk, piled high with papers, boxes and left-over business cards of the four defeated Liberal MLAs.

"It's a hard thing to leave,” she said. "But when politics is all done, there are still friendships left behind.”

No MLA-designate swearing-in dates have been announced yet.

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