Dennis Fentie

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The Honourable Dennis Fentie

7th Premier of Yukon
Incumbent
Assumed office 2002
Preceded by	Pat Duncan

Born	November 8, 1950 (age 56) Edmonton, Alberta
Political party	Yukon Party

Dennis Fentie, MLA for Watson Lake (born November 8, 1950 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian politician who is the current Premier of Yukon and leader of the Yukon Party. Owner and former manager of Francis River Construction Ltd., Fentie had been an MLA for the Yukon New Democratic Party from 1996 until crossing the floor in May 2002 becoming leader of the Yukon Party one month later. He took the party to power winning a majority government in that November's election. A year later, Fentie was under attack when it was revealed that he had been convicted and spent time in prison for heroin trafficking in 1974 when he was 24 years old, a fact he had not previously made public since he had received a pardon.^[1]

As of 3 August 2006, Fentie no longer had a majority government, after one seat was lost in a byelection and two other MLAs defected. As Premier he has passed record budgets and focused on government-to-government relationships with First Nations and neighbouring jurisdictions.

On Oct. 10 2006 he won a 2nd term

[edit] Notes

^ CBC, Yukon premier did time for heroin trafficking, news story from 23 November 2003
Canadian Press, Yukon Premier 'Embarrassed' by Edmonton Heroin Conviction, 12 December 2003, retrieved from [1]

On Oct. 10 2006 he won a 2nd term, again with a majority government.