Todd Hardy (May 17, 1957 – July 28, 2010) was a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

activist, and politician who served as Leader of the

Yukon New Democratic Party The Yukon New Democratic Party (YNDP; ) is a social democratic political party in the Yukon, Canada. It is the territorial section of the federal New Democratic Party. The Yukon NDP first formed the government of the territory under the leaders ...

. He has also served as

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

in the

Yukon Legislative Assembly The Yukon Legislative Assembly () is the legislative assembly for Yukon, Canada. Unique among Canada's three territories, the Yukon Legislative Assembly is the only territorial legislature which is organized along political party lines. In contr ...

from 2002 to 2006. A carpenter by trade, Hardy was business agent of local 2499 of the

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, often simply the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC), was formed in 1881 by Peter J. McGuire and Gustav Luebkert. It has become one of the largest trade unions in the United State ...

before being elected to the

. He taught

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

and also volunteered as a minor

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

coach, coaching one of the Yukon's teams to the Arctic Winter Games and the

Canada Winter Games Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He was married to

Louise Hardy Louise Frances Hardy (née MacKinnon; born November 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician. Hardy was a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the riding of Yukon from 1997 to 2000. She was a critic for Human Rights, Housing, Citizenship and ...

, the Yukon's former federal Member of Parliament.

Political career

He was first elected to the

for the riding of

Whitehorse Centre Whitehorse Centre is an electoral district which returns a member (known as an MLA) to the Legislative Assembly of the Yukon in Canada. It was created in 1992 from an amalgamation of the ridings of Whitehorse North Centre and Whitehorse South ...

in the

1996 Yukon general election The 1996 Yukon general election was held on September 30, 1996 to elect the seventeen members of the 29th Yukon Legislative Assembly in Yukon Territory, Canada. The governing Yukon Party, a conservative party, was defeated by the social democr ...

and was narrowly defeated in the 2000 election. Hardy was one of the founders of

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...

in the Yukon. He became leader of the Yukon NDP in 2002 and won his Whitehorse Centre seat in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

held that year. In August 2006, Hardy was sent to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

for

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

treatment. Hardy fought the 2006, general election from his hospital bed through near daily telephone conferences with local reporters and the NDP candidates. He returned to Whitehorse just a week before the vote and still managed to win his seat. His party, however, though leading in the polls for months going into the election was reduced to three seats and third party status. Hardy maintained his seat in the legislature and title of leader despite frequent trips out of the territory for continued monitoring and treatment during the spring sitting in 2007. He continued in his duties until the 2010 spring sitting, when his surprised his colleagues by sitting in the legislature despite his illness. Citing his ongoing health issues, he announced on February 5, 2009, his intent to resign as party leader. This took effect on September 26, 2009, when

Elizabeth Hanson Elizabeth Hanson (born 1951), also known as Liz Hanson, is a Canadian politician from the Yukon. She was the leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party from 2009 until 2019, and represented the electoral district of Whitehorse Centre in the Yuko ...

was acclaimed as the new leader.

Death

Todd Hardy died at home after a long battle with leukemia at age 53 surrounded by close family.

Electoral record

Yukon general election, 2006

, - ,

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...

, Todd Hardy , align="right", 357 , align="right", 46.6% , align="right", +13.4% , - , Liberal , Bernie Phillips , align="right", 211 , align="right", 27.5% , align="right", +3.4% , - , - ! align=left colspan=3, Total ! align= 766 ! align= 100.0% ! align= –

Yukon general election, 2002

, - ,

, Todd Hardy , align="right", 300 , align="right", 33.2% , align="right", -0.7% , - , Liberal , Bernie Phillips , align="right", 218 , align="right", 24.1% , align="right", -22.1% , - ,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Mike McLarnon Mike McLarnon is a former Canadian politician who represented the electoral district of Whitehorse Centre in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2002. McLarnon was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon and operated several businesses in ...

, align="right", 207 , align="right", 2.9% , align="right", – , - , - ! align=left colspan=3, Total ! align= 904 ! align= 100.0% ! align= –

Yukon general election, 2000

, - , Liberal , Mike McLarnon , align="right", 312 , align="right", 46.2% , align="right", +23.0% , - ,

, Todd Hardy , align="right", 229 , align="right", 33.9% , align="right", -11.9% , - , - ! align=left colspan=3, Total ! align= 676 ! align= 100.0% ! align= –

Yukon general election, 1996

, - ,

, Todd Hardy , align="right", 328 , align="right", 45.8% , align="right", +8.3% , - , - , Liberal , Jon Breen , align="right", 166 , align="right", 23.2% , align="right", -1.7% , - ! align=left colspan=3, Total ! align= 716 ! align= 100.0% ! align= –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Todd 1957 births 2010 deaths Canadian socialists Canadian carpenters Trade unionists from Yukon Deaths from cancer in Yukon Deaths from leukemia in Canada People from Langley, British Columbia (district municipality) Leaders of the Yukon CCF/NDP 20th-century members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly 21st-century members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly