Ed. note: this is one of a series of riding profiles for the Nov. 7 election being published in random order.

Watson Lake voters have never gone down the middle in their selection of a territorial MLA.

Since the beginning of party politics, they’ve either gone to the left with the NDP or the right with the Yukon Party, and it’s been to the right in the last three elections.

Two of those saw the community in 2002 and in 2006 re-elect Dennis Fentie, the former premier and Yukon Party leader, even after he left the NDP after two successful elections as a New Democrat in 1996 and 2000.

Numbers clearly show Fentie was something a favourite for Watson Lake. He never received less than 50 per cent of the popular vote, and in fact garnered much more than 60 per cent in his last three elections.

In 2011, Yukon Party MLA Patti McLeod won the seat with 38 per cent of the vote.

McLeod is seeking re-election. Ernie Jamieson is running under the Liberal banner and Erin Labonte is running for the NDP.

Erin Labonte

Labonte says she knows what Watson Lake needs, and what it doesn’t need.

It doesn’t need to go shopping around for some major investor to get another lumber mill going, she says.

She says the community’s already been there, done that, and it didn’t work. She remembers the collapse of the community’s forestry sector. Her dad was driving a logging truck.

The southeast Yukon community needs to step out of its comfort zone, and use its robust forest resources to build a value-added, log home industry.

You don’t need a lot of money to get into the log home industry that can supply the community’s housing shortage, put people to work, provide training and ultimately lead to an export industry, says the 30-year-old, born and raised in Watson Lake.

Labonte says it’s not rocket science. It’s a viable economic opportunity that can be shared among the whole community, First Nation and non-First Nation, she says.

“We have to work on the relationship with our First Nation, that is the only way the community can move forward .... We definitely need an economy that works for our community, not some big pipe dream.”

People her age, people she cares about, are moving back to Watson Lake, and they need opportunities, says the president of the local minor softball league.

“I think number one is we have some serious social issues in the community with mental health and addictions and they are not being addressed in any real way by the government we have now,” Labonte says.

She says sending someone down from Whitehorse a couple of times a month just isn’t working.

More than her interest in politics is her interest in the needs of her community, she says.

But in her lead-up to entering the territorial election, she did some research and decided the New Democrats are the party for her. She says she voted NDP in the 2015 federal election, and when the party approached her to run territorially, she was pumped.

And she likes to volunteer. There are two kids in Watson Lake with cystic fibrosis, including her nephew.

In the last five years, Watson Lake has raised more than $50,000, more money per capita than any community in western Canada, Labonte points out.

She emphasizes – rather proudly – that this year was the first year Whitehorse raised more money than Watson Lake in the annual fundraising walk.

Ernie Jamieson

Jamieson figures he was born right around where the premier’s office is today, having come into this world in 1950 at the old, old Whitehorse General Hospital – now the site of the government’s main administrative building.

Not only that, says the Liberal candidate for Watson Lake, he spent his childhood years at Camp Takhini, the army subdivision that used to be right where the Takhini Arena is today.

“I often say I spent many nights sleeping right there on the blue line.”

Jamieson’s family moved to Watson Lake in 1959. When he hit the age of making a living for himself, he turned to construction because he loved equipment.

At 30, he started a busing and trucking service for the Cassiar Mine and Cantung and not long afterwards began a 35- year business of providing school busing for Watson Lake and other Yukon communities.

Jamieson says he loves the outdoors, challenging the rivers in his riverboat, downhill-skiing and playing hockey.

But as he begins his retirement years, what he sees is his community in crisis, a town on its heels.

No industry, no work and no progress, he says.

Jamieson says the infrastructure is aging. There are no serviced lots for housing even if you wanted to buy one, he points out.

“My community needs a lift, and I am willing to challenge that.”

The father of two and grandfather of three says he’s never belonged to a political party but his parents were Liberals, so if there was ever a party he would join, it would be the Liberals.

He says he likes the fact the Liberals run down the middle; that they can look to all sides.

“They can look at industry, they can look at people in distress, low-cost housing,” he says.

Jamieson says after he discussed the matter with his wife, he approached the party and it was keen.

There are opportunities to create economy in Watson Lake, opportunities in oil and gas, opportunities in mining and forestry, he says.

Jamieson says the Yukon’s third-largest community has its share of substance abuse and social problems. Providing an economic stimulus – jobs – can tackle those issues head-on, he insists.

His issues, he says, are the community’s issues.

Patti McLeod

The arrival of Alkan Air’s regularly scheduled passenger and freight service to Watson Lake from Whitehorse is a good thing, and hopefully a harbinger of things to come, says Yukon Party MLA Patti McLeod.

The riding representative for the past five years says more local economy is what she and community residents want to see.

“I like to see people working, being able to support their families and being able to buy things for their families,” says the mother of two.

As the district mining recorder who retired in 2010, the 40-year resident of Watson Lake was never a card-carrying member of any political party.

She says she was, however, always a little right-leaning as a strong supporter of economy and jobs. When she decided to seek office in 2011, the Yukon Party was a natural fit for her.

“I think I can do some good within government,” she says of her bid for a second term. “I can’t say enough about the people I had an opportunity to work with, very smart and committed people.

“I had the full support of my colleagues, and we worked well together.”

A master gardener with a penchant for growing flowers, the MLA, who became Speaker of the legislature after Dave Laxton’s resignation last spring, says she wants to see job training opportunities in communities across the Yukon.

She’s also excited about progress being made in the IT sector, and the effort to increase the Internet speed and capacity in the Yukon.

A pilot project started about three weeks ago in Watson Lake, she points out.

McLeod says while the project is currently focused on improving Internet service in government buildings, it does include the public library, which she is happy to see.

If the pilot works out, hopefully it can be expanded for use in communities throughout the Yukon, she says.

McLeod says she’s also to pleased to see the work being done to promote tourism in the Yukon, particularly the current focus on TV commercials aimed at showing the beauty the territory has to offer.

“They are very well done,” she says.

McLeod also notes her party’s emphasis on expanding renewable energy opportunities.

“I am excited about the Next Generation Hydro project,” she says. “It’s clean, it puts people to work, and that is a good thing.”