Antony David John Penikett (b. 1945)
Tony Penikett was born in Sussex, England and was educated at St. Albans School in Hertfordshire, England and in Alberta and Ontario. His first job was at Yukon’s Clinton Creek asbestos mine where he became active as a shop steward and chair of the grievance committee. In 1972, he was the campaign manager for Wally Firth, the first indigenous minister of parliament elected to the House of Commons.1)
Penikett first ran for the territorial legislature in 1970, before party politics began in the Yukon. He finished second to Mike Stutter in the Dawson riding. He won a vote to be the first leader of the territorial NDP which ran a slate of candidates the following year. Penikett lost the 1974 election in the Whitehorse South Central riding to Jack Hibberd and in July he finished third in the race to become the Yukon MP against incumbent Erik Nielsen. In 1975, Penikett quit as leader and went to Ottawa with the federal NDP.2) Tony Penikett became Ed Broadbent’s Ottawa chief of staff when Broadbent took over leadership of the federal NDP in 1975.3)
When Penikett returned to the Yukon, he won a Whitehorse city council seat in 1977. In 1978, he ran and won the Whitehorse West territorial riding by thirty votes in the first ever election with full political parties. He was the only New Democrat to be elected to the legislature and thus took over the leadership from Fred Berger, who lost his seat. Penikett served as Yukon's NDP government leader/premier between 1985 and 1992. Under his leadership, the NDP won a minority government in 1985, which became a majority in a by-election in 1987. He won a majority government in the 1989 election. He was the first Yukon head to adopt the name of premier. Penikett's government was defeated by the Yukon Party in 1992. He resigned as leader early in 1995 and quit Yukon politics in September after close to seventeen years as the MLA for Whitehorse West.4)
Penikett’s government is notable for its role in the conclusion of Yukon’s land claim and self-government agreements started by the previous Conservative government. In 2000, the Yukon 2000 Initiative brought the major components of Yukon society together to brainstorm future sustainable economic development. His government brought in human rights legislation and an accompanying commission. The Education Act was rewritten, and improvements were made to the environment and mental health services. Health care premiums were phased out and a financial relief program for chronic care patient started evolving.5) Piers McDonald, who served as a minister under Penikett from 1985 to 1992, called Penikett an effective and persuasive speaker who left a significant legacy for the legislature and the Yukon government.6)
Penikett was a senior advisor on policy and planning for the Saskatchewan NDP cabinet for two years. He moved to British Columbia in 1997 to work for that government. Penikett served as deputy minister of B.C.'s Crown Corporation Secretariat and the deputy minister of Finance in charge of labour negotiations.7) He was appointed in 1998 to lead British Columbia’s contract negotiations with public sector unions. Between 1998 and 2000 he and John Calvert negotiated a record thirty-two public sector accords.8) He was the deputy minister of Labour with the B.C. government from April 2001 to June 2001.9)
Between 2001 and 2005 Penikett was a visiting professor of the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue at Simon Fraser University and a senior fellow on native treaty issues. He has worked at the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and for West Coast Environmental Law. He was appointed the University of Washington’s Canada Fulbright Chair in Arctic Studies for 2013-14. He established Tony Penikett Negotiations consulting firm in 2001.10)
In 2020, Tony Penikett was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work as a champion of social democracy, cultural accommodation, and racial reconciliation.11) Tony Penikett is the author of Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia, Douglas & McIntyre, 2006; two television films - The Mad Trapper (BBC TV, 1972) and La Patrouille Perdu (ORTF, 1974); and several plays.