Yukon MLA Edzerza quits NDP, will sit as Independent

John Edzerza quit the Yukon New Democratic Party this week, the second time the Whitehorse-area MLA has changed his political stripe.

Edzerza, the MLA for McIntyre-Takhini, told CBC News he just felt his ambitions as MLA did notline up with the party.

"I just found that over the last couple of years [there's] just been too much instability within the party," Edzerza said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

"I've got a lot of ambition to really see progress happen and to get things moving, butI think it's more along the lines that the party just doesn't seem to be moving anywhere."

Edzerza said his decision to leave the NDP has nothing to do with party leader Todd Hardy, who flew to Vancouver this week for medical treatment related to his 2006 leukemia diagnosis.

"My prayers go out to him," Edzerza said of Hardy. "He's at a very, very challenging time, and I have the utmost respect for him."

Party officials told CBC News that Hardy will address the issue when he returns from his treatment.

Independent office being set up

Edzerza quietly announced his decision Monday to administrators with the Yukon legislative assembly. He will sit as an Independent member when the legislature resumes.

"We have an Independent office. Right now it [is] occupied by the Yukon Party, so we will move one of their researchers out, John will move in. We'll switch phones, get him fax equipment, computers, that kind of information," said Helen Fitzsimmons, the assembly's manager of administration, finance and systems.

Fitzsimmons said Edzerza should be up and running in his new office by the end of this week.

Edzerza was first elected as McIntyre-Takhini MLA in 2002 under the banner of theright-leaning Yukon Party, which became the governing party.

He served as minister of justice and education in Premier Dennis Fentie's cabinet until Aug. 2, 2006, when he quit the Yukon Party and announced he would instead run for the NDP in that fall's territorial election.

Explaining why he decided to switch parties, Edzerza said some government decisions made him doubt the Yukon Party, including a decision to withdraw a school construction project in Burwash, Yukon, from the government's budget without telling him.

"I would have resigned then, but I am not a quitter," he told reporters in Whitehorse at the time.

NDP caucus left at 2 members

Edzerza was re-elected as a New Democrat in the Oct. 10, 2006, election.

His latest decision leaves the NDP with just two MLAs Hardy and Mount Lorne MLA Steve Cardiff and a loss of about $37,000 in research funding from the legislative assembly.

"Budget-wise, each MLA is entitled to a component for research," Fitzsimmons said. "His will be prorated for this year, and then as of April next year, he'll get a full entitlement for Independent research.

"MLAs can choose to do what they want with that money. But most people, as a caucus, pool that money together and hire joint researchers and everything. So in this case, that amount of money will no longer be allocated to the NDP. It will come out and go [to] the Independent."

Edzerza said he has not been in talks to jointhe Yukon's Liberal Party, the current opposition party. He said he would be content to serve the remaining 2 years of his current term as an Independent.

"I think I earned a fair amount of credibility, and I think as an Independent, I would continue to do just exactly what I'm doing and what I have done since I got involved with territorial politics," he said.