Pokemon and the rest of us
On the one hand, it’s good to see that the Yukon’s digital infrastructure is good enough that Yukoners can go as bonkers over Pikachu and Charmander as the rest of the planet.
Council of Pokemon
Last week you may have noticed groups of people around Whitehorse, strangely fixated on their smartphones and huddled at apparently random street corners.
What’s not in the Fireweed Party platform
Sometimes what is not in a political party’s platform is as important as the “announceables” you see in the news.
Brexit: Implications for the Yukon
This week, I’ll take a break from the Fireweed Party series to report from London on what Brexit means for the Yukon.
The Fireweed Party capital budget
We’ve been having fun for the last few weeks, at least by economist standards, talking about the platform of a mythical Fireweed Party that wants to make the Yukon the best choice in Canada.
The Fireweed Party and the essentials of daily life
This is the third installment of the platform of the mythical “Fireweed Party,” which I have put together after chatting with various veterans of Yukon politics about what their dream party might offer to voters.
The Fireweed Party’s economic platform
Last week, I idly speculated what a new Yukon political party might put in its platform, if it tried a bit harder to get past the vague bafflegab that fills most political platforms.
Launching the Fireweed Party
Believe it or not, in some places people get so sick of their tired old political parties that they invent new ones.
Yukonomist visits the big city
Yukoners like to treat Skagway like it's in their own backyard. But while Alaska looks a lot the same, it is different in many ways from the Yukon.
Digital Sourdoughs: How do you prove your identity online?
I generally get very fast and efficient service at the motor vehicles branch office and the Department of Health. With four kids, we are frequent fliers in the learner's licence and lost-health-card categories.
The sharing economy and the Yukon
The "sharing economy" is one of 2016's buzzwords. Trendy tech startups such as Uber, Yerdle, Taskrabbit and Airbnb are promising to fundamentally change how people use cars, hotel rooms and even their spare time.
The Cloud offers new options for Yukon business
If you go to a business conference these days, there seems to be no problem that can't be solved by "the Cloud." The Cloud is so trendy that it begets second-order cliches describing it as a "paradigm shift" or the "new normal.
Some fanciful ideas on Yukon’s foreign policy
I recently wrote about the Yukon's fiscal policy. Afterwards, someone asked me what the Yukon's foreign policy should be. It's an interesting idea.
State of the Yukon economy
The new season of Game of Thrones is not yet available on Apple TV, but fortunately Yukoners have something nearly as good in the meantime.
Design principles for a Yukon carbon tax
Although they didn't mention it in their budget-response speeches, when pressed by doughty newshounds from this newspaper, NDP leader Liz Hanson and Liberal leader Sandy Silver confirmed they are considering a carbon tax.
A cunning plan by the vanguard elite, or just left wing amateur hour?
Every revolution needs a vanguard elite. The proles are usually too distracted by religion, nationalism or the NHL playoffs to have developed a revolutionary consciousness.
A tale of three budget speeches
The most important speech of the year for a Yukon premier is the budget address, since in our system the premier is also the finance minister.
All aboard the oil train!
Everybody loves a government-funded feasibility study. The people with the idea are happy to see their idea moving closer to, they hope, realization.
‘Feeling the Bern’ in Alaska
Bernie Sanders hit Hillary Clinton like an avalanche in Alaska last weekend, winning 81 percent to 19 percent in the state's Democratic caucuses. Bernie won all 40 districts convincingly, and gets 13 Alaskan delegates while Hillary gets just three.
Make Bennett great again!
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but an eye for a good hotel location seems to run in the family. Trump's grandfather Fred ran a hotel in Bennett during the Klondike Gold Rush.