Former Yukon Progressive Conservative leader Willard Phelps held his first public meeting to make a pitch for a new political party in the Yukon.
"We're all here, I think, for a fundamental reason and that is we share a deep and biding concern about what's happened to our political system," he told a crowd of about 100 people at a local hotel.
"There's something drastically wrong with the way things are going," the ex-energy corporation director told the crowd.
Phelps, 68, has called his new group the United Party, to rival the Liberals, New Democrats and governing Yukon Party.
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Last June, he and three other directors quit the Yukon Energy Corp. board after accusing Premier Dennis Fentie of working to privatize the public utility in a deal with Calgary-based ATCO.
Since then, Phelps has been on a campaign to remove Fentie from power.
"Are they servants of the people or are they self-serving?" he said of MLAs who stick with the Fentie regime in spite of the Yukon Energy/ATCO scandal that has rocked the government.
Phelps suggested a sweetened pension deal passed into law two years ago is keeping MLAs loyal to Fentie.
Phelps' vision is for a "big tent" political party made up of quasi-independent MLAs, elected by members in the territory's 19 constituencies.
About two dozen people volunteered after Phelps' speech to craft the new party's charter and platform and 60 people signed up to be kept informed of such activities.
But there was some confusion about Phelps' vision for a non-partisan political party as well as who would be at the helm.
"I'll take this as far as I have to, but I'm not looking for another career, if that's what you're asking," Phelps responded to a question on whether he would lead such a party.
As for potential platform ideas, Phelps believes recall legislation would be beneficial to territorial politics.
Jim Brohman, lead negotiator for the Yukon government employees' union, took Phelps to task for his conduct while he was in government as an independent minister in the 1990s.
"When on the road to Damascus did you change your ways?" asked Brohman, before reminding Phelps that it was under his leadership that the government first explored the idea of privatizing the energy corporation.
Brohman also read an acrimonious response Phelps provided to an opposition MLA during a question period more than 10 years ago.
Phelps said he was open with the public about privatization on a deal the government ultimately determined was not in the best interest of the territory. As for his past question period conduct, he said it was "spirited debate."
"I'm as guilty as anybody," Phelps said of the personal attacks he now believes are part of the problem.
During his speech, Phelps said he was largely responsible in the late 1970s for bringing party politics to the territory, "but it's clear that's not working anymore."
The one-time member of the Yukon Party cabinet also denied he was "in a cock fight" with Fentie, as one person charged near the end of the meeting.
Andy Carvill, grand chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, supported Phelps' idea of a new party, saying he wanted to be involved in policy development.
Members of other First Nations said relations between the Yukon government and aboriginal people have been deteriorating.
That includes the government's current challenge before the Supreme Court of Canada over a 65-hectare agricultural lease on the traditional territory of the Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation. (Whitehorse Star)