Brad Cathers
	
Brad Cathers grew up in the Yukon and lived off the grid at Lake Laberge as a child. He worked in tourism before he entered politics.((“MLA Brad Cathers joins Yukon Party leadership race.” //CBC News,// 6 December 2019. 2020 website: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/brad-cathers-yukon-party-leadership-1.5386340)) Until 2007, Cathers was part owner of Cathers Wilderness Adventures. He served as the Wilderness Tourism representative in the Yukon Tourism Education Council from 2000 until 2002. At one time he was a member of the Reform Party of Canada and its successor the Canadian Alliance.((“Brad Cathers.” //Wikipedia,// 2020 website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Cathers))
	
Cathers had been a long-time Yukon Party supporter when he was first elected to the Yukon Legislature in 2002. He was appointed to Dennis Fentie’s cabinet in 2005. He resigned from the party caucus in August 2009 when Fentie was secretly discussing a possible merger between Yukon Energy and ATCO, a private corporation in Alberta. The Lake Laberge riding supported Cathers after a turbulent meeting where four executive members walked out.((“Cathers backed by Yukon Party members in home riding.” //CBC News,// 20 May 2010. 2020 website: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cathers-backed-by-yukon-party-members-in-home-riding-1.944988)) Cathers quit the party in 2009 to sit as an Independent. He called Fentie unnecessarily belligerent and confrontational and urged him to step down.((“MLA Brad Cathers joins Yukon Party leadership race.” //CBC News,// 6 December 2019. 2020 website: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/brad-cathers-yukon-party-leadership-1.5386340)) 

Brad Cathers has served as minister of many government departments and on several standing committees. He served as Government House leader from 2005 to 2009, and from 2011 to 2016.((“Brad Cathers.” Yukon Government Legislative Assembly 2020 website:  https://yukonassembly.ca/member/brad-cathers)) After the defeat of former Yukon Party Deputy Premier Elaine Taylor, Cathers became the longest-serving incumbent MLA in the Yukon Legislative Assembly.((“Brad Cathers.” //Wikipedia,// 2020 website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Cathers))

Brad Cathers was re-elected in 2016 and served as the Yukon Party Official Opposition Critic for Health and Social Services, Finance, Agriculture, and Democratic Institutions. In May 2020, Cathers lost a leadership election for Yukon Party leadership, coming in second to Currie Dixon. He was re-elected in the 2021 territorial election and in 2024 served as the Deputy House Leader of the Official Opposition. And critic for Health and Social Services, Finance, Justice, Agriculture and Democratic Institutions.((“Brad Cathers.” //Wikipedia,// 2024 website: Brad Cathers - Wikipedia))