John Edzerza was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician. He represented the electoral district

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of McIntyre-Takhini in the Yukon Legislative Assembly

Yukon Legislative Assembly

-History:From 1900 to 1978, the elected legislative body in the Yukon was the Yukon Territorial Council, a ten-member body which did not act as the primary government, but was a non-partisan advisory body to the Commissioner of the Yukon...

.

Political career

Born in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 in 1948, he first entered politics in 2002 as a Yukon Party

Yukon Party

The Yukon Party , is a conservative political party in the Yukon Territory of Canada. It was previously known as the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party.-Declining fortunes:...

 MLA, and served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Education in Dennis Fentie

Dennis Fentie

Dennis G. Fentie, MLA is a Canadian politician. He was the seventh Premier of Yukon and leader of the Yukon Party, serving from 2002 to 2011, as well as the MLA for Watson Lake.-Background:...

's cabinet.

After disagreeing with a number of government decisions in early 2006, he resigned from the Yukon Party on August 2, 2006 to sit as an independent MLA, and recontested his seat in that fall's territorial election

Yukon general election, 2006

The 36th Yukon general election was held on October 10, 2006, in Yukon, Canada, to elect members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. The Premier of Yukon asked the territorial Commissioner for a dissolution of the Assembly on September 8, 2006...

 as a candidate of the Yukon New Democratic Party

Yukon New Democratic Party

The Yukon New Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in the Yukon territory of Canada.The Yukon NDP first formed the government of the territory under the leadership of Tony Penikett from 1985 to 1992, and under the leadership of Piers McDonald from 1996 to 2000. The party's...

. He was re-elected, and served in the NDP caucus under Todd Hardy

Todd Hardy

Todd Hardy was a Canadian politician, and former Leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party. He has also served as Leader of the Opposition in the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2006....

 until January 2009, when he resigned from the NDP to sit again as an independent. He rejoined the Yukon Party on October 22, 2009, and served as Minister of the Environment until retiring in 2011. Edzerza died of leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

on November 25, 2011.