The 1978 Yukon general election was held on November 20, 1978, was the first conventional legislative election in the history of Canada's Yukon Territory. Prior elections were held to elect representatives to the Yukon Territorial Council, a non-partisan body that acted in an advisory role to the Commissioner of the Yukon. Following the passage of the Yukon Elections Act in 1977, the 1978 election was the first time that voters in the Yukon elected representatives to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in an election organized along political party lines.
Hilda Watson, the first woman ever to lead a political party into an election in Canada, was the leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Although the party won the election, Watson herself was defeated in Kluane by Liberal candidate Alice McGuire, and thus did not become government leader. The position of government leader instead went to Chris Pearson.
New Democratic leader Fred Berger was also defeated in his own riding. He remained leader of the party until 1981, when he was succeeded by the party's sole elected MLA, Tony Penikett. Under Penikett's leadership, an MLA who had been elected as an independent in 1978 joined the NDP, and the party won a by-election. With its caucus increased to three members, the NDP had thus supplanted the Liberals as the official opposition by the time of the 1982 election.
|- style="background:#ccc;" ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Party ! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Party leader !rowspan="2"|<span style="font-size: 80%;">Candidates</span> ! colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|Seats !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|Popular vote |- style="background:#ccc;" | style="text-align:center;"|1974 | style="text-align:center;font-size: 80%;"|Dissol. | style="text-align:center;"|1978 | style="text-align:center;"|Change | style="text-align:center;"|# | style="text-align:center;"|% | style="text-align:center;"|Change
|align=left|Hilda Watson |align="right"|15 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|11 |align="right"|+11 |align="right"|2,869 |align="right"|37.10% |align="right"|N/A
|align=left|Iain MacKay |align="right"|14 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|2 |align="right"|+2 |align="right"|2,201 |align="right"|28.46% |align="right"|N/A
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Independent |align="right"|9 |align="right"|12 |align="right"|12 |align="right"|2 |align="right"|-10 |align="right"|1,096 |align="right"|14.17% |align="right"|N/A
|align=left|Fred Berger |align="right"|14 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|0 |align="right"|1 |align="right"|+1 |align="right"|1,568 |align="right"|20.27% |align="right"|N/A |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"|Total | style="text-align:right;"|52 | style="text-align:right;"|12 | style="text-align:right;"|12 | style="text-align:right;"|16 | style="text-align:right;"|+4 | style="text-align:right;"|7,734 | style="text-align:right;"|100.00% | style="text-align:right;"|
The following MLAs had announced that they would not be running in the 1978 election:
Independent
Bold indicates party leaders<br /> â - denotes a retiring incumbent MLA
|- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Campbell | |Don McIntosh<br />61 | |Blake Stirling Macdonald<br />120 | |Margaret Thomson<br />65 || |Robert Fleming<br />184 || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Faro | | | | | |Stuart McCall<br />231 || |Maurice Byblow<br />361 || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Hootalinqua || |Al Falle<br />209 | |Mike Laforet<br />83 | |Max Fraser<br />159 | |Mack Henry<br />44 || |Robert Fleming |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Klondike || |Meg McCall<br />152 | | | |Fred Berger<br />130 | |Eleanor Millard<br />114 || |Fred Berger |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Kluane | |Hilda Watson<br />150 || |Alice McGuire<br />188 | | | |John Livesey<br />49 || |Hilda Watson |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Mayo || |Swede Hanson<br />95 | |Gordon McIntyre<br />84 | |Alan McDiarmid<br />82 | |David Harwood<br />85 || |Gordon McIntyre |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Old Crow || |Grafton Njootli<br />62 | |Edith Tizya<br />29 | |Robert Bruce<br />19 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Tatchun || |Howard Tracey<br />109 | |Hugh Netzel<br />71 | |Jerry Roberts<br />83 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Watson Lake || |Don Taylor<br />226 | |Grant Taylor<br />188 | | | | || |Don Taylor |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse North Centre || |Geoff Lattin<br />153 | |Dermot Flynn<br />83 | |Doug Stephenson<br />131 | |Ken McKinnon<br />141 || |Ken McKinnon |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Porter Creek East || |Dan Lang<br />322 | |Bill Webber<br />202 | |Paul Warner<br />84 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Porter Creek West || |Doug Graham<br />188 | |Clive Tanner<br />142 | |Kathy Horton<br />60 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Riverdale North || |Chris Pearson<br />358 | |Richard Rotondo<br />194 | |Dave Dornian<br />59 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse Riverdale South | |Margaret Heath<br />354 || |Iain MacKay<br />420 | |Jim McCullough<br />113 | | || |New District |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse South Centre || |Jack Hibberd<br />245 | |Bert Law<br />197 | |Ken Krocker<br />122 | | || |Jack Hibberd |- | style="background:whitesmoke;"|Whitehorse West | |Anthony Fekete<br />185 | |John Watt<br />200 || |Tony Penikett<br />230 | |Al Omotani<br />81<br />Guy Julien<br />37 || |Flo WhyardâÂÂ
After the election, four of the elected members in the Progressive Conservative Party, including Chris Pearson, were added to the Executive Committee headed by Commissioner Art Pearson. In October 1979, at the instruction of Jake Epp, Federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Commissioner withdrew from direct government administration; Chris Pearson became Government Leader (equal to Premier), added a fifth member of the PC Party caucus, and formed the Executive Council of Yukon, thus beginning responsible government with an elected head of government in The Yukon. Art Pearson would later resign as Commissioner after pleading guilty to charges related to improper mining claim transfers and was replaced with Frank Fingland.