CAREER TAKES ANOTHER DIMENSION – Kate White, the MLA for Takhini-Kopper King, listens to a government speaker in the legislature on Oct. 2, 2018. Before her foray into the political world, the just-announced NDP leadership candidate earned a French immersion diploma and later a culinary diploma and Red Seal in baking.

Political journey takes MLA to leadership bid The territory drew a step closer Thursday to learning who could be the face of the Yukon NDP going forward: current MLA Kate White. By Palak Mangat on February 1, 2019

The territory drew a step closer Thursday to learning who could be the face of the Yukon NDP going forward: current MLA Kate White.

Confirming her intention to run for the leadership Thursday afternoon, the Takhini-Kopper King representative said it was after much thought and reflection that she decided to throw her hat into the ring.

White is not the party’s leader – that person will be confirmed come the party’s May 4 convention.

Outgoing leader Liz Hanson said late last year she would be stepping down from the helm.

Saying she isn’t aware of anybody else with a similar goal, White encouraged other Yukoners to give it a shot if they saw fit.

“I went through a process early on in this, I guess you could say, career, feeling like I didn’t belong because I didn’t have what other people had,” she told the Star Thursday afternoon.

Now, eight years later, she can say with confidence she has developed a deeper care for her community, something that at least in part pushed her to make that plunge.

Should White win that race, it could be the tale of an underdog.

“I am 100 per cent an unlikely politician,” she said. “No one, including me, ever saw myself here.”

Recalling her tradesperson background, White added she doesn’t have a post-secondary education and didn’t wrap up high school until she was about 21.

“I’m covered in tattoos, I’ve worked at mine sites, in corrections.

“I wasn’t what I thought politicians were supposed to be; the first couple years especially in a learning curve were really hard,” said White, who was first elected in 2011.

Likening it to imposter syndrome, she said that feeling of inadequacy lifted off her shoulders one day when she was to be debating a budget on housing, about two years into serving as an MLA.

“It was a switch and I realized I had learned, been absorbing this information, I was capable of doing the work and then it’s gone from there.”

She felt increasingly comfortable heading into the debate with little preparation, she added.

That feeling came about two years into her service as MLA, after which White was eventually given the role once again in 2016’s territorial election.

Her sole teammate in the legislature is Whitehorse Centre’s Hanson, who has led the party since 2009. Hanson said in November 2018 she would be leaving the role.

Meanwhile, before her foray into the political world, White earned a French immersion diploma and later a culinary diploma and Red Seal in baking.

She’s seen as a mean cake decorator and mountain biking enthusiast, as well as passionate advocate for mobile homeowners.

Splitting the duties of third party status and critic roles with Hanson, White explained the NDP team she’s grown to know has been small but mighty.

That’s especially after the party went from official Opposition against a Yukon Party government under Dennis Fentie in 2011 and then Darrell Pasloski, eventually succumbing to Sandy Silver’s now-governing Yukon Liberals in 2016 and the Yukon Party.

It was an election that saw the party drop from six to just two seats, bidding farewell to MLAs Jim Tredger, Kevin Barr, Jan Stick (now a city councillor) and Lois Moorcroft.

(The Liberals currently hold 11 seats in the legislature, the Yukon Party claims six and the Yukon NDP has two.)

White counted past NDPers and others like the late Jack Layton, along with more local community leaders within the territory, as her motivators.

“I want to build and tell people there’s so many people who work hard for the community.”

That includes work on issues like environmental protection, access to health care, and affordable housing.

“But sometimes we do that in isolation, and it’s lonely and hard – but you don’t have to be alone when you do this work.

“Because there’s an organization or group of people already doing that work – and that’s the NDP.”

While she may not know either way at this stage, White hopes there are people who want to challenge her for the role, to further the party’s ideas moving into the election fewer than three years from now.

“I really tell people all the time – I am me, I am me for all the bumps and lumps and all the good things.”

Come Monday, the party will begin its leadership race and be faced with that deadline ahead of its May 4 leadership vote.

“Logistically, what that means for me is, it’s a good thing I have gotten used to hard work and spreading myself a bit thin because I will have my regular work cut out for me,” White laughed. (This year’s spring sitting is to ramp up on March 7.)

“You will be unsurprised to learn that all the issues that were important to me before remain important,” she said, noting the party has been “steadfast” in what it stands for over the years.

“That won’t change, but what will change ... I’ll try to bring along my desire to make sure people feel welcome.”

After last November, when Hanson said she would be hanging up her hat as leader, White told the Star she was on the fence about running for leader.

“Liz has been fantastic but I also think she’s someone who deserves a break,” White said Thursday of her sole seatmate (who is to stay on as leader until her successor is chosen, and as MLA).

So far, White is the only candidate to publicly put her name forth ahead of the May leadership vote, with the next election to be held in 2021.

“I just reached that point where if I really do think there is room in politics for people like me, the best way to do that is to join me in this, let’s do this,” she laughed.

Meanwhile, local lawyer Shaunagh Stikeman confirmed she will not be running for the party’s leadership against White.

Stikeman made a bid under the party’s banner during the 2016 election as a candidate in Mountainview, won by Liberal cabinet minister Jeanie Dendys.

Those interested in joining White at her launch party are invited to The Old Fire Hall at 5 p.m. Feb. 9.

It will be a free, all-ages, drop-in event with more formal remarks beginning an hour in.