Arthur Mitchell (Yukon politician)

Arthur Mitchell is a Canadian politician, who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Yukon and the leader of the Yukon Liberal Party from 2005 to 2011. He is a former real estate agent and an assistant to John Ostashek, the Yukon Party government leader from 1992 to 1996. He was elected leader in June 2005 in a leadership race against Pat Duncan, the Yukon's first Liberal premier. Duncan called the leadership race after seeing her government defeated and losing all but her own seat in the 2002 Yukon general election. Mitchell ran in the Copperbelt riding in that election, but did not win his seat.

He also served as alternate chair of the Yukon Worker's Compensation Health and Safety Board, on the City of Whitehorse Parks and Recreation Board, and on the Elijah Smith Elementary School Council.^[1]

Personal life

He is originally from the community of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York, United States. Mitchell is the brother of television journalist Andrea Mitchell.^[1] and the son of Cecile and Sydney Mitchell. His father was the chief executive officer and partial owner of a furniture manufacturing company in Manhattan and was also the president of Beth El Synagogue in New Rochelle for 40 years. His mother was an administrator at the New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan.^[2] Mitchell moved to Canada in the 1970s, settling in Atlin, British Columbia to run a general store until moving to Yukon in the early 1990s and becoming a real estate agent in Whitehorse.^[1]

Political career

Mitchell was elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in a by-election on November 21, 2005 in the Copperbelt riding.^[3]

On May 1, 2006, he became Yukon's Leader of the Official Opposition.^[1]

He ran in the redistricted riding of Copperbelt North in the 2011 election, but was defeated by Currie Dixon of the Yukon Party and announced his resignation of the head of the Yukon Liberal Party.

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