Northern Canadian history was made on this date in 1909 when the first elected members of what would eventually become the Yukon Legislative Assembly met in Dawson City. Ten members took their seats that historic day. At the time, the group formed what was called the Yukon Territorial Council. Its task was to advise the Commissioner of the territory, the latter who was appointed by the federal government. Before 1909, the council was comprised of five elected members and five appointed by the federal government. By the 1970s the Territorial Council evolved into what is now Yukon’s Legislative Assembly, with the capital now in Whitehorse.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.