The federal election for 2011 is well underway in the three northern Canadian territories. Not all the parties have put forth candidates yet, but it is anticipated this will be done by the end of the week. The issues these candidates will have to face from the electorate reflect the rather unusual circumstances of the Canadian North. Today’s blog entry looks at the Yukon issues and candidates (the NWT and Nunavut will be covered in the next few days).

In the Yukon, Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell is up against Conservative Ryan Leef (currently a corrections supervisor, but formerly an RCMP officer, wildlife officer, big-game outfitter and professional ultimate cage fighter — yes, please don’t laugh, that last one is true) and the Green’s John Streicker (scientist and engineer specializing in climate change issues). The NDP are nominating their candidate on Wednesday night.

Actually, everyone in the Yukon calls Bagnell by his first name, and despite the best intentions of numerous writing style guides (including the one used by rabble.ca) Larry is what this blog will use from now on. Liberals supporters half-jokingly suggest that the only thing that could hurt Larry on polling day is if another candidate had the same first name and voters got confused and put an X next to the other guys name. He is well liked.

Ryan Leef is a Conservatives wet-dream. Cop, hunter, fighter — if this guy doesn’t embody law and order issues nobody does. He does have some positives, though. He is a long-time Yukoner in a riding where knowledge of local issues and concerns have to be learned over essentially a lifetime, and being a former cage fighter carries a bit of a cachet in the Yukon where there is emphasis on doing things to extreme. It should be interesting to see if he can break the law and order mould he is currently defined by and address the real issues confronting the Yukon.

John Streicker has made a name for himself in the Yukon dealing with climate change issues and advocating solutions to them. He was the Green Party candidate in the last election and did well, coming a respectable third (ahead of the NDP). In the past he has managed to galvanize some of the youth vote and has been partially successful in putting forth the concept that the Greens are not necessarily left, right or centrist in politics, but rather ahead of the other parties. However, it is suspected that a lot of soft Green support dissolves on voting day and goes to the Liberals in order to deny the Conservatives a victory.

Despite the Conservatives best hopes, gun control will probably not (yes, that’s right folks, not) be a big issue. Larry voted for the registry in the House of Commons, as well as Bill C-300 (An Act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries) and all this in the Yukon, where a large percentage of the population own long guns for hunting and there’s an image of a miner on the license plate. If anything, these two votes show that Larry knows that Yukoners are worried about too many unlicensed guns floating around and that being pro-mining doesn’t mean being unaccountable for the damage the industry can do to communities and the environment.

Given that there is a massive mining boom on in the Yukon resulting in a lot of people moving here for work opportunities, the lack of housing for both locals and newcomers is nothing short of a scandal. While responsibility for housing and land development does lie mainly with the Territorial government, it is dependent on federal transfer payments to pay for it all. Expect questions to be raised on how each party intends to ensure more federal dollars are spent on affordable housing.

Most Canadians might not be aware, but Canada has an offshore boundary dispute with the United States of America — it’s the offshore maritime border between the Yukon and Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. At stake is a small wedge of continental shelf that might or might not be rich in fossil fuels. While most Yukoners are dubious about offshore drilling (one can thank BP and the Gulf of Mexico for that) a certain nationalistic pride does bubble forth on this issue.

There is concern in the Yukon over ocean fossil-fuel drilling in the Beaufort Sea generally, and how any spill would be cleaned up. There is virtually no capacity to attempt anything like the BP clean-up, and given that weather conditions are so harsh a clean-up would probably be impossible. The parties position on whether or not there should be a moratorium on off-shore drilling in the Beaufort will probably come up.

Finally, questions will be asked about that Alaska Highway Natural Gas Pipeline (first proposed in the late 1960s, it’s a reoccurring environmental bogeyman that never actually jumps out and scares a person, but we all suspect it might). Running from Alaska to Alberta, it would pass through the Yukon. Incredibly expensive, conveyor of fossil fuels that cause climate change (that is impacting the Yukon ‘first and worst’ when compared with southern Canada) most Yukoners are probably ambivalent about it. What they will want to know from the candidates is how can the pipeline (if it ever gets built, now looking unlikely) benefit the Yukon, and if it cannot what sort of mitigation or adaption has to be done to minimize the impact its construction and operation will cause to Yukon communities and environment.

Lewis Rifkind

Lewis Rifkind

Lewis Rifkind is a Whitehorse based part-time environmentalist. His work centers around Yukon recycling, energy and mining issues. When he is not winter camping or summer hiking, he collects stamps...