After almost nine months on the job, the Honourable Angélique Bernard is loving her new role as the Commissioner of Yukon. That time has been mostly spent meeting people and educating them on the role of the Commissioner. Bernard notes that the responsibilities of the role are unknown to many Yukoners, since she is not …
June 10 will be a double-barreled day of action in Dawson City, as it always is during what could be called Commissioner’s Day. The two events on this day – the Commissioner’s Tea and the Ball – are always held on the Saturday closest to June 13, which was the date in 1898 when the …
Dawson City blooms in the summer. It’s a process that begins in some local commercial greenhouses and explodes after the horticultural booths at the Gold Show during Victoria Day Weekend in May. It then continues unabated as part of the Farmers’ Market during the summer, and employs several landscaping and gardening firms during the same …
“You’re in one of the slides in this presentation,” they told me. This came as a surprise, since it is generally my lot in life to be the picture taker rather than the picture takee. But there I was, standing outside the chain link fence on Fifth Avenue, in the fall of 2010, just about …
While doing what I call my Berton House exit interview with Sara Tilley, the latest writer-in-residence, she remarked that one of the things that made her feel comfortable and at home here was the colourful palette of our buildings. It reminded her of buildings in Newfoundland. That’s quite true. I noticed the colours, particularly in …
One hundred years ago, the Yukon’s First Lady, Martha Louise Black, set about making a statement with her gardens. Black moved into the Commissioner’s Residence in Dawson City following her husband, George Black’s, appointment as 10th commissioner of the Yukon in 1912. Upon consultation with her gardener, William Horkan, (whimsically known as “Me Hearty” Horkan), …
I finally managed to spot the place where they are crossing the Yukon River yesterday (November 19). I’ve been hearing stories of people making the trek since about two weeks after they pulled the ferry out, but the ice build-up has been so erratic this year that I hardly knew what to believe. It looked …
It’s always interesting to learn how other people see us. Three creative spirits passed our way a couple of weeks ago and left us with some thoughts connected to our sense of place. Iain Baxter& said he thought the drive to Dawson was like living in a Monet painting. I would have picked one of …
