Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada has postponed a rally set to take place in the Yukon due to the wildfire situation, according to the party’s website.
“Due to severe wildfires, and the devastation and disruption they are causing to those affected by emergency evacuation orders, we have made the decision to cancel planned events and postpone them to a future date,” reads the website.
There are no longer evacuation orders or alerts in effect for Old Crow and Mayo areas due to wildfires in the Yukon, but there are evacuation orders in place for parts of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia as fires rage on in Canada.
A statement on the federal party’s website, attributed to Sebastian Skamski, Poilievre’s media relations director, indicates a tour to British Columbia was cancelled due to the seriousness of the situation in the southern province.
“Our priorities are to support British Columbians fighting these devastating wildfires,” reads the statement.
The party’s website indicates a rescheduled event will be planned in the coming months for the Yukon.
The anti-carbon pricing system or “Axe the Tax” rally in Whitehorse was previously planned for Aug. 24 at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre, according to a Facebook event page that is being promoted by Yvonne Clarke, Yukon Party MLA for Porter Creek Centre.
The Yukon Party opposes the federal carbon pricing system and is pushing the territorial government to work with other territories to at least seek an exemption on home heating fuel.
“The Yukon Party has continued to push for real action on the costs that impact Yukoners and Yukon businesses the most: carbon taxes,” Kluane MLA Wade Istchenko said in a July release. The release refers to N.W.T. Premier Caroline Cochrane recently saying that carbon pricing feels like punishment for the North.
An Aug. 23 release from the Yukon Liberal Caucus refers to the cancelled event in Whitehorse as “Poilievre’s climate change denialism rally.” Per the release, the caucus is calling on the Yukon Party to “break away from their federal counterparts and acknowledge the reality of human-caused climate change and recognize that the costs of inaction far outweigh any perceived benefits.”
It appears that Poilievre hasn’t tweeted or posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the Yukon or Whitehorse since 2015.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
