Yukon Territorial Council

First established in 1898 as an appointed body, the first election to the council took place in 1900 to elect two at-large members alongside the already-appointed ones. Until 1909, the council retained a mix of appointed and elected members, with the 1909 election being the first one to elect the entire body.^[2]

In the first two Yukon elections and in the 1917 Yukon general election, party labels were used but thereafter elections to the council officially took place on a non-partisan basis. No political parties were incorporated at the territorial level, although the electoral district associations of the federal Progressive Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic parties sometimes put forward unofficial slates of candidates. Many other candidates were actively involved in the federal political parties, and effectively served as representatives of their federal party even if they had not been part of an organized slate.

The number of seats on the council varied throughout its history, from as few as three to as many as twelve.

The council met in Dawson City until 1953, when the territory's capital was moved to Whitehorse.^[3]

In 1966, the territorial council passed a motion calling for an elected council of 15 members, the upgrading of Yukon's status from a territory to a full province within 12 years, and the creation of an executive committee with full cabinet powers.^[1] Although the motion was disallowed, it did lead to the negotiation of a series of reforms in the 1970s which ultimately led to the establishment of the fully democratic Legislative Assembly of Yukon in 1978.^[1]

Beginning in 1970 an executive committee was created, consisting of the commissioner, two civil servants from the commissioner's administration, and two members of the territorial council.^[4] The two councillors on the executive committee were also given ministerial responsibilities over certain aspects of territorial governance; one minister would be responsible for education, while the other would be responsible for health and welfare, effectively making them much more powerful than their other colleagues on the council.^[4] The first two executive councillors, Hilda Watson and Norman Chamberlist, were able to convince two other non-executive councillors to support them in an electoral bloc which gave them disproportionate control over all council business on the seven-member council.^[4] Council business during this era regularly passed or failed on a consistent 4-3 split, based solely on whether Watson and Chamberlist supported or opposed the motion — thus effectively transforming the body from the consensus government model on which it had been based into a quasi-partisan majority government.

The new structure proved controversial,^[4] and led to a period of internal dissension within the council and widespread dissatisfaction with its work among the general public.^[4] Noted political conflicts during this era included a jurisdictional dispute with Whitehorse City Council in 1973 which led five of the six city councillors to resign their seats in protest,^[5] and dissension over the introduction of medicare in 1974 which resulted in 4,000 of the territory's 6,651 registered voters signing a petition demanding the council's dissolution.^[4]

For the subsequent 1974 election, federal Indian and Northern Affairs minister Jean Chrétien introduced legislation increasing the number of seats on the council from seven to 12, and the number of executive councillors from two to three.^[1] In 1977, a fourth executive councillor was added, giving the territorial council the majority of the seats on the executive committee for the first time.^[1]

The 1974 election was the last election of members to the territorial council.^[1] After a change in the territory's election law formally established the Legislative Assembly and the political party structure that now prevails in Yukon politics, the body was dissolved, and the 1978 election was the first one contested under the new fully democratic structure.^[1]