John Streicker was one of the Yukon Liberals’ first potential candidates to throw his hat in the ring, and has appeared to be Liberal Leader Sandy Silver’s right-hand man ever since.
He announced his intention to seek the Liberal nomination for Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes in July 2015, and was acclaimed in March 2016.
Streicker was the federal Green Party candidate in the 2008 and 2011 federal elections. In 2011, he won 19 per cent of the Yukon vote, the best showing of any Green Party candidate in the country, barring party leader Elizabeth May.
After that election, Streicker was widely seen as having contributed to former Conservative MP Ryan Leef’s win by splitting the vote with incumbent Liberal MP Larry Bagnell. In November 2014, he announced he wouldn’t run in the 2015 federal election.
He completed a term on Whitehorse city council in October 2015, after earning more votes than any other candidate, including the mayor, when he was elected.
When he first stepped forward as a potential Liberal candidate last year, he said the issues he was most concerned with as a former Green Party candidate – “sustainability, diversity, grassroots democracy, social justice” – align with Liberal Party politics.
“We should stop this idea about being partisan first,” he said in July 2015. “It’s at the territorial level where we really need more work done. That’s the place where I want to really devote my effort and make as big a difference as I can.”
Streicker is a professional engineer specializing in climate change impacts and has been a lecturer at Yukon College. He has also worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
During this election, Streicker will face off against incumbent Kevin Barr for the NDP and Marsh Lake fire chief Rob Schneider for the Yukon Party. Barr won the riding with 47 per cent of the vote in 2011.
Contact Maura Forrest at maura.forrest@yukon-news.com