Todd Hardy (1957 – 2010)
Todd Hardy was born in Murraysville, British Columbia. He moved to the Yukon with his family at the age of ten in 1967. He graduated from FH Collins and was a carpenter by the mid-1980s.1)
Hardy became the business agent for local 2499 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. He taught karate and was a volunteer hockey coach. He was elected as a New Democrat (NDP) representing Whitehorse Centre in 1996 and was narrowly defeated in 2000. He was a founder of the Yukon Habitat for Humanities. He became leader of the Yukon NDP in 2002 and the party won that year’s general election. In 2006, Hardy started leukaemia treatment and fought the 2006 election from his hospital bed in Vancouver. He returned to Whitehorse the week before the vote and won his seat while his party was reduced to three seats and third party standing. Hardy resigned as party leader in February 2009 and Elizabeth Hanson was acclaimed as the new leader.2)
Todd Hardy is remembered as a tough and gentle man, one of the best.3) In the legislature, his passion led him to deliver sustained and withering tongue lashings to opposing MLAs. Hardy never dodged defying an injustice and always promoted society-nurturing concepts and did it with a fierce, principled intensity.4)
Hardy’s legacy was in efforts to transform the territory into a better, safer domain. The NDP’s major accomplishments in the 1980s were banning public drinking while driving and making use of seat belts mandatory. Hardy built on this record to help push the Smoke Free Places Act and the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. He was vocal in the field of women’s equality (social and occupational) and social assistance. Outside the legislature, Hardy was a catalyst for the Habitat for Humanity housing program and was a teacher and role model for score of youth involved in sports and martial arts. Hardy never dodged defying an injustice and always promoted society – nurturing concepts and did it with a fierce, principled intensity.5)