Tony Penikett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antony (Tony) David John Penikett (born November 14, 1945) is a mediator and negotiator and former politician in Yukon, Canada. An activist with the New Democratic Party (NDP), Penikett became a member of the party's federal council in 1973 and served as executive assistant to Ed Broadbent in the mid-1970s. He was president of the federal NDP from 1981 to 1985.

Born in Sussex, England, Penikett was first elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in 1978. As leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party he went from being the sole New Democrat Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in 1981 to leading the party to power in the 1985 territorial election, winning a minority government and becoming government leader.

Penikett fought the federal government for a better deal for the territory in Canadian confederation and for control over the region's natural resources. Penikett's government also negotiated and signed an umbrella agreement for First Nations land claims, negotiated the first four agreements with individual First Nations, and developed an economic development strategy for the Yukon in consultation with citizens.

Penikett's government opposed the Meech Lake Accord believing it would make it impossible for the Yukon to ever become a province.

The NDP won a majority government in the 1989 election but, after seven years in power was defeated in the 1992 election by the conservative Yukon Party. After the 1989 election, Penikett took the title of Premier of the territory. He was the first government leader in the territory to take that title.

In 1995, Penikett resigned as leader of the Yukon NDP and was succeeded by Piers McDonald. There was an attempt that year to draft Penikett as leader of the federal New Democratic Party, but he declined to run. In 2003, he was also rumoured as a candidate to lead the British Columbia New Democratic Party but did not run.

After leaving politics, Penikett moved south to British Columbia where he is a senior fellow on native treaty issues at Simon Fraser University and has also worked at the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation and for West Coast Environmental Law. In 1997, he was appointed by the then NDP government in BC to lead contract negotiations with the province's public sector unions.

Penikett is the father of actor Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon on the television series Battlestar Galactica.

Penikett is the author of: "Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia," Douglas & McIntyre, 2006, "Breaking Trail, Trafford, 2005; two films, "The Mad Trapper," BBC-TV, Lomdon, (1972), "La Patrouille Perdu," ORTF, Paris, 1974; and several plays.