Arthur Mitchell (b. 1950)
Arthur Mitchell was born in New Rochelle, New York to parents Cecile and Sydney Mitchell. Cecile Mitchell was an administrator of the New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan. Sydney Mitchell was partial owner of a manufacturing company and the president of Beth El Synagogue in New Rochelle.1) Arthur and Nancy Mitchell were driving to Alaska in 1971 when they stopped in Atlin for the night. They ended up moving there and staying for twenty years before moving on to Whitehorse.2) They ran a general store in the town.3)
The Mitchells moved to the Yukon in 1992. Arthur was the executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, president of the Board of Trade, and worked on the tourism board and a regional economic development task force. He was a real estate agent in Whitehorse and then worked as a cabinet spokesman for John Ostashek’s Yukon Party government from 1994 to 1996.4)
Mitchell ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal in the 2002 Yukon election where the Liberals were reduced to a single seat. Mitchell contested Pat Duncan’s leadership and defeated her by fifty-four votes in June 2005. He was elected in a by-election in the Copperbelt riding after Haakon Arntzen resigned. The Liberals became the Official Opposition in May 2006 after two NDP MLAs defected to the Liberal caucus. The Copperbelt riding was dissolved before the 2011 election and Mitchell ran and lost against Currie Dixon in Copperbelt North. He resigned as the leader of the Yukon Liberal Party that was then reduced to third-party status.5)