Ranj Pillai


Ranj Pillai is a Canadian politician who served as the tenth premier of Yukon and leader of the Yukon Liberal Party from 2023 to 2025. He represented the electoral district of Porter Creek South in the Legislative Assembly of Yukon, to which he was first elected in the 2016 election.
𝕏 RanjPillai1

Early life

Ranj was born in Inverness, Nova Scotia. He grew up in Brook Village and Inverness before moving to Antigonish to complete his high school diploma. His father, Gopi Pillai, is a retired Indian Hindu doctor from Kerala and his mother, Johnena Lee, is a retired nurse.

Political career

Pillai sat as a Whitehorse City Councillor from 2009 to 2012. While on council, he helped bring Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada to Whitehorse and was awarded the 2011 Yukon Tourism Champion Award for his efforts.
Pillai was also the executive director of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, and has held roles with Northern Vision Development and Yukon College.
On December 3, 2016, Pillai was sworn into the Cabinet of Premier Sandy Silver as Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, and Economic Development. He is also the Minister responsible for Yukon Development Corporation and the Yukon Energy Corporation.
On November 25, 2022, following Sandy Silver's resignation as Liberal leader pending the election of a successor, Pillai announced his candidacy for leader of the Yukon Liberal Party. He was acclaimed party leader in January 2023 because there were no other candidates in the race, thus becoming the premier–designate. He is the second Indo-Canadian to become premier of a province or territory, after Ujjal Dosanjh in British Columbia. He was sworn in as premier on January 14.
He declined to lead the party into the 2025 Yukon general election, announcing his decision to resign as party leader, upon the selection of his successor, and not seek re-election as an MLA, on May 7, 2025. Businessman Mike Pemberton was elected to succeed him in June. Pillai retained his roles as Minister of Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corporation in Pemberton's cabinet, having held those roles in Silver's cabinet.

Personal life

Pillai is married and has two children.

Electoral record

Yukon general election, 2016

!align="left" colspan=3|Total
!align="right"|724
!align="right"|100.0%
!align="right"| -

Whitehorse municipal election, 2009

Whitehorse municipal election, 2009--
CandidateVotes%
Doug Graham2,67813.1%
Ranj Pillai2,42211.8%
Betty Irwin2,0019.8%
Dave Stockdale1,9869.7%
Florence Roberts1,7948.8%
Dave Austin1,7508.5%
Jeanine Myhre1,4597.1%
Ron Swizdaryk1,4507.1%
Graham Lang1,3956.8%
Skeeter Miller-Wright1,3706.7%
Janet Brault1,1635.7%
Michael Buurman1,0215.0%
Total20,475100%