Arthur Mitchell is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician, who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Yukon and the Leader of the Official Opposition from 2006 to 2011. He is a former real estate agent and an assistant to John Ostashek, the

Yukon Party The Yukon Party (french: Parti du Yukon) is a conservative political party in Yukon, Canada. It is the successor to the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party. Formation With Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative federal go ...

Government Leader (Premier) from 1992 to 1996. Mitchell was elected leader in June 2005 in a leadership race against

Pat Duncan Pat Duncan (born April 8, 1960) is a Canadian politician from Yukon. Duncan served as leader of the Yukon Liberal Party from 1998 to 2005 and as the sixth premier of Yukon from 2000 until 2002. Duncan was the first Liberal premier of the Yukon ...

, the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

's first Liberal premier, and remained leader until his defeat in the 2011 Yukon election.

Personal life

Mitchell is originally from the community of

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He is the brother of television journalist

Andrea Mitchell Andrea Mitchell (born October 30, 1946) is an American television journalist, anchor and commentator for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C. She is NBC News' chief foreign affairs & chief Washington correspondent, reporting on the 2008 presi ...

who is married to

Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...

. He is son of Cecile and Sydney Mitchell. Mitchell's father was the chief executive officer and partial owner of a furniture manufacturing company in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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 The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cyberse ...

in Manhattan. Mitchell moved to Canada in the 1970s, settling in

Atlin, British Columbia Atlin ( Tlingit: ''Wéinaa'') is a community in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on the eastern shore of Atlin Lake. In addition to continued gold-mining activity, Atlin is a tourist destination for fishing, hiking and Heliskiing. A ...

to run a general store until moving to Yukon in the early 1990s and becoming a real estate agent in Whitehorse. Mitchell has also served as alternate chair of the Yukon Worker's Compensation Health and Safety Board and on the City of Whitehorse Parks and Recreation Board.Yukon Liberal Party Leader: Arthur Mitchell
cbc.ca. Retrieved 11 February 2012

Political career

Mitchell ran unsuccessfully in the newly created

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's Downtown Whitehorse, downtown ...

riding of

Copperbelt The Copperbelt () is a natural region in Central Africa which sits on the border region between northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is known for copper mining. Traditionally, the term ''Copperbelt'' includes the ...

in the 2002 Yukon election, but was defeated by

candidate

Haakon Arntzen Haakon Arntzen is a Canadian politician. He represented the Whitehorse, Yukon electoral district of Copperbelt in the Yukon Legislative Assembly as a member of the Yukon Party from 2002 to 2005. Political career First elected in the 2002 ...

. In the 2002 election, the Liberals were reduced from government to just a single seat, that of leader and former Yukon Premier

. Duncan consequently called for a confidence vote in her leadership, which Mitchell contested. He defeated Duncan by 54 votes in June 2005. Mitchell soon after contested a by-election in the riding of Copperbelt in 2005, following the resignation of Haakon Arntzen after convictions of indecent assault. Mitchell was elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the November 21, 2005

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

. Mitchell led his party to gaining Official Opposition status in May 2006, following the defection of two New Democrat MLAs, Gary McRobb and Eric Fairclough, to the Liberal caucus.Fairclough joins Liberals
Yukon News (Leighann Chalykoff), May 2, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2016. Under Mitchell's leadership, the Liberals retained Official Opposition status later that year in the 2006 Yukon election, increasing the party's seat count by one. Mitchell served as the Yukon's Leader of the Official Opposition during the 32nd Legislative Assembly. Mitchell announced his intention to seek re-election in the redistributed riding of Copperbelt North in the 2011 election, after his riding of Copperbelt was dissolved. However, he was defeated by

Currie Dixon Currie Dixon (born September 2, 1985) is a Canadian politician, leader of the Yukon Party, and MLA for Copperbelt North. Dixon was a cabinet minister in the government of Darrell Pasloski and is the former MLA for Copperbelt North, having ser ...

of the

and announced his resignation as the head of the Yukon Liberal Party. As a result of its loss, the Yukon Liberal Party was once again reduced to third party status.

Election results

2011 general election

, - , - , Liberal , Arthur Mitchell , align="right", 407 , align="right", 37.4% , align="right", – , - , NDP , Skeeter Miller-Wright , align="right", 159 , align="right", 14.6% , align="right", – , - ! align=left colspan=3, Total ! align= 1088 ! align= 100.0% ! align= –

2006 general election

, - , Liberal , Arthur Mitchell , align="right", 632 , align="right", 52.5% , align="right", +3.0% , NDP , David Hedmann , align="right", 191 , align="right", 15.9% , align="right", -14.8% , - bgcolor="white" !align="left" colspan=3, Total !align="right", 1204 !align="right", 100.0% !align="right", –

2005 by-election

, - , Liberal , Arthur Mitchell , align="right", 459 , align="right", 49.5% , align="right", +16.9% , NDP , Maureen Stephens , align="right", 285 , align="right", 30.7% , align="right", +3.2% , - bgcolor="white" !align="left" colspan=3, Total !align="right", 927 !align="right", 100.0% !align="right", – *''On the resignation of

(September 2005).''

2002 general election

, - , Liberal , Arthur Mitchell , align="right", 312 , align="right", 32.6% , align="right", – , - , NDP , Lillian Grubach-Hambrook , align="right", 263 , align="right", 27.5% , align="right", – , - bgcolor="white" !align="left" colspan=3, Total !align="right", 957 !align="right", 100.0% !align="right", –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Arthur 1950 births Yukon Liberal Party MLAs Living people People from the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine Politicians from Whitehorse Politicians from New Rochelle, New York Yukon Liberal Party leaders Jewish Canadian politicians American emigrants to Canada 21st-century Canadian politicians