Sandy Silver, premier-elect of Yukon..The Canadian Press
Sandy Silver, who took the Yukon Liberals from third-party status to a majority government in Monday's territorial election, was being coy the morning after.
"Does it remind me of anybody?" he asked, all innocence. "It's amazing. It really is."
There are more than a few parallels between Silver in Yukon and his fellow Liberal and federal counterpart in Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to find a new ally in Canada's northwest corner on two of his most prominent files: carbon policy and indigenous reconciliation.
Silver campaigned on a platform of working with the federal government on a new national price on carbon.
"We'll do exactly what was set out in the Vancouver Protocol," Silver said Tuesday, referring to the agreement signed last spring by Trudeau and all the premiers. "Carbon pricing should not be designed in a way that impedes the growth of the territory."
He plans to return all carbon tax money to businesses and consumers, but at differing rates.
"You can't have the same amount of rebate for somebody who lives in Whitehorse and can take transit to work compared to somebody who lives in rural Yukon," said Silver, who was speaking from his home in Dawson.
"We're going to work with municipalities, and we're going to work with the private sector, and we're going to come up with a plan that does not marginalize folks that are having a hard time, and works to stimulate local business."
Silver also promised to work better with aboriginal governments. Yukon has 11 of Canada's 22 self-governing First Nations and the relationship under the Yukon Party – which led the territory for the last 14 years – was often testy.
The first person Silver called Monday night after his victory was Grand Chief Peter Johnston of the Yukon Council of First Nations.
Silver said his government will do its best to honour the original plans for the Peel Watershed, a vast Arctic wilderness that represents 14 per cent of the territory's area and is highly valued by aboriginals and industry. Those plans, the result of years of land-claim negotiations, were rejected and heavily modified by the previous Yukon government and are the subject of a Supreme Court hearing scheduled next year.
"Our intent is to implement that (original) plan. If possible, that is what we will do – 100 per cent."
The premier-elect also said he'll work with Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell to hasten the repeal of federal legislation passed by the Harper Conservatives that replaced an independent environmental assessment board with one led by a federal appointee. That legislation was also the subject of aboriginal-led lawsuits.
Industry will benefit from the new approach, said Silver. "They want certainty," he said.
Low commodity prices have made for some tough years recently for mining, Yukon's mainstay. But Silver – who met with 15 mining executives in Vancouver before the campaign began – said there's still a future in the territory for miners willing to work with aboriginal governments. He points to the steady progress of the Kaminak gold project south of Dawson as proof.
His government will work to bring those parties together, he said.
"The one thing that we'll do better is have conversations together."
There's more than a whiff of sunny ways to Silver's promised approach.
"The way that we've structured the party fits perfectly for what Yukon needs – a moderate government, a government that allows membership from the left and from the right, consensus-building, actually having a party that models the mosaic of this territory."
"Moving from downstairs to upstairs" is likely to take at least a couple of weeks, Silver said. And then, he predicted, the territory will begin showing the rest of Canada how to develop resources in a way that respects the environment and indigenous people – and makes a buck.
"To me, this is an opportunity to get back on that national stage."