The Liberal party nomination race received an injection of youth and digital savvy Thursday night, with newcomer Ben Sanders officially entering the fray.

Sanders, a 31-year-old engineer, announced his candidacy for the nomination to the cheers of a crowd of young supporters at the Rah Rah Gallery.

"We need a new type of B.S. in politics,” he said, pointing to campaign buttons bearing that slogan — a play on the nomination candidate's initials.

A third potential candidate for the Liberal nomination, Fred Statham of Watson Lake, is collecting signatures, the Liberals' election readiness committee has confirmed.

A nomination meeting is slated for Oct. 4.

Sanders' run, which builds on his diverse work history and relatively recent arrival in the Yukon, stands in contrast to the political experience and extensive community service of rival nominee Larry Bagnell, 64, the Yukon's MP from 2000 to 2011.

Bagnell, who lost to current Conservative MP Ryan Leef by 132 votes in the 2011 federal election, announced his candidacy last month.

Sanders sees his arrival on the scene just last year as a strength, allowing for a fresh take on the political and social landscape.

Though he served as a parliamentary page more than a decade ago — a job he said he enjoyed — Sanders was "ultimately disappointed and turned off by the fact that things weren't getting done.”

Sanders, upbeat and energetic throughout the campaign launch, kept things positive as he unveiled his policy priorities and introduced himself to Liberals and Yukoners.

The former Silicon Valley start-up founder touched on residents' frustration with slow Internet speeds and pricey, all-too-narrow broadband.

"It needs to be faster, more affordable and it needs to be more reliable,” Sanders said.

He even put forward the idea of launching high-flying, semi-permanent balloons that deliver low-cost Internet service to remote locations.

The prospect is already soaring under a Google project, though Sanders acknowledged a single MP might not have the jurisdiction to initiate such airborne infrastructure.

Drawing on his digital experience with BlackBerry and the Canadarm — the world's most famous robotic space appendage — Sanders proposed a "Yukon code rush” to transform Whitehorse into a web development hub.

Overall, he plans to focus on five areas, which, conveniently, fit into his campaign acronym: FIVES.

First Nations issues need more attention and a more "active dialogue” in the wake of a slew of land claims-related lawsuits against the territorial government.

"We're not necessarily honouring or respecting the agreement in the way that we should,” he said, citing the Umbrella Final Agreement and the Elijah Smith delegation's 1973 march on Ottawa.

Voting reform is another priority of Sanders, who is proposing a ranked ballot system to achieve more representative government and avoid vote splitting and "strategic voting.”

Environment and energy have attracted significant attention recently, he noted, with questions around the future of the Peel River watershed and liquified natural gas in the territory still unanswered.

"The environment is something that's important to the Yukon and it's something that we need to protect,” Sanders said.

He emphasized "renewable energy that's better for the environment” instead of falling back entirely on "old-school hydro.”

Sanders, until last month a senior business advisor with the Department of Economic Development, showed slides depicting him on his 8,000-kilometre bicycle trip across Canada several years ago.

En route, he carried a solar panel and hydrogen fuel cell and addressed young people in schools as part of an environmental and energy awareness campaign.

Social enterprise comprises the fifth wing of the Sanders campaign shuttle.

"People here are so involved,” he said, noting the 600-plus non-profit organizations flourishing in the territory.

Sanders said he wants to foster more NGO growth, including projects that convert old warehouses into collective work spaces for non-profits to pool resources for rent, utilities, lawyers and other costs.

Rather than citing Liberal icons like Lester Pearson or Pierre Trudeau in his concluding remarks, Sanders embraced the spirit of web-oriented innovation peculiar to Silicon Valley in quoting late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs:

"Here's to the crazy ones. The troublemakers .... The ones who see things differently. And they have no respect for the status quo.... Because they change things.

"And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Sanders' voting reform and "social enterprise” planks are where he overlaps with Bagnell's vision for the territory.

While Sanders has joined two non-profit boards and helped found a third — YuKonstruct, a local makerspace — Bagnell has worked with dozens of community organizations over several decades.

Bagnell wants to get back to helping Yukoners navigate complicated federal programs while improving the country for future generations, including his children.

He and his wife, Melissa, have two young children, Aurora, five, and Dawson, two.

"I'm actually really gratified that I was home during the earliest, formative years,” Bagnell said of being able to spend more time with his family over the last three years.

While Sanders avoided criticism of the reigning Conservative Party and Bagnell, the latter is critical of many of the federal government's cuts to services.

These include reductions to Parks Canada, heritage and aboriginal programs, and the controversial closure of the local Canada Revenue Agency office.

"It didn't make any sense; we have a right to those services,” said the veteran Yukoner.

"It probably brought more income tax into the federal government than it cost because of people knowing how to do it right,” he said.

"I was a constant champion for the North, making sure the North's voice got heard,” he said.

"Often, we're different, we have different needs – a perfect example is food mail. I fought against the changes that have so drastically hurt that for the people of the Arctic.”

Bagnell also noted his record promoting tourism and anti-poverty measures.

"When you have over 900 people in Whitehorse accessing the food bank, you know that's just ridiculous.

"We're one of the wealthiest communities in the world, so something has to be done to deal with that type of imbalance.”

Other priorities Bagnell listed included the implementation of land claims, which he noted aren't being implemented in the spirit of the agreements, according to Canada's Auditor General, and the development of a truly fair Elections Act.

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