Former MP Larry Bagnell wins Liberal nomination in Yukon

Members of the Liberal Party in Yukon have elected their candidate for the next federal election.

Larry Bagnell was declared the winner Saturday night, after the first ballot count. He garnered more than 50 per cent of the 1,432votes cast.

It was a record-high turnout for the Yukon Liberal Party, which now has more than 2,100 members, themost since 1997.

• Yukon Liberals choose federal candidate Saturday

The surge in membership has a lot to do with this campaign race, which set up Bagnell, aformer Yukon MP, againstBen Sanders, TamaraGoepellandGurdeepPandher.

Bagnell says for now, he plans to soakup his accomplishment, but says he's going to narrow in on the main prize in a couple of weeks.

"Go have some fun for a few weeks, enjoy this great momentum of liberalism, but then we have tocome back and get our Canada back," Bagnell said.

Bagnell has his sights on winning back the seat Conservative Ryan Leef took from him in the last federal election in May 2011 when the Conservative Party won a majority government.

Leef has already won the Conservative nomination by acclamation, andwill be running against Bagnell again.

There's still no word from the Yukon New Democrats or the Yukon Green Party on who will be representing their parties.