Yukon, North of Ordinary: In This Issue : Archives : Spring 2007

Spring 2007

Departures

Ed's Note

Letter from the President

Vuntut Gwitchin: People of the Lakes

Your Letters

Venture North: Interviews with Northern Garmets Inc and Outback Group.

Sojourn

Those Incorrigible Mavericks

The Mavericks exhibit at Glenbow Museum explores the incorrigible characters and history of the Texans of the North.

A Feastival of the Senses

Tofino tempts all your senses at its annual wine-and-food fest in May.

Letter Home: Looking for the City

Former Yukoner Rohan Quinby meditates on his quest for the meaning of a city.

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Inside

The Little Airline That Could:

A profile of Air North's CEO and president Joe Sparling.

Joe Sparling's maternal grandfather came to Yukon in 1900, during the Klondike Gold Rush, and purchased the Regina Hotel in 1924. Joe's father came north in 1942, during the Yukon's next great upheaval, the construction of the Alaska Highway. In 1974, Joe graduated from the MBA program at the University of British Columbia, and came home to work in the family hotel. "It was just a job at first," he says. "I served drinks, did the maintenance and the painting, and collected a paycheque." But it was in that job he began to develop the strengths that would one day make him a successful CEO. "I learned that you have to be willing to work in all aspects of the business," he says. "from cleaning the washrooms to counting the cash." More important perhaps, he learned a life-long attitude toward work. "I got one major thing from my father and my grandfather, and that was the ability to work. I always took pride in working harder than the guy next to me. You don't have to be smarter than the next guy if you're willing to work harder."

While home on summer vacations during university, Joe acquired his private pilot's licence in 1972, and two years later his commercial certification. "It was something I'd always been interested in, and it was fairly cheap to do," he says. In 1977 he and his partner Tom Wood purchased an existing bush-charter business and flying school, and Air North was born.

As a bush charter service, Air North operated single-engine Cessnas, and its biggest customers were mines and mineral explorations companies. It wasn't a way to get rich, but it was an interesting life. "For a guy with a fresh MBA," says Sparling, "you were going to be in an office somewhere. It seemed to me that kicking around here and running an airline would be more rewarding. I realized then that I wouldn't mind making a little less money if I was doing something I enjoyed. I may be guilty of trading off financial rewards for doing something I like doing."

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Measures of a Legacy:

Looking at the footprint of the 2007 Jeux du Canada Winter Games.

Even if the Centre is the most obvious legacy of the Whitehorse 2007 Jeux du Canada Winter Games, Twardochleb says it isn't the only physical legacy. He says Mount Sima received snow-making equipment, upgrades to its T-bar lift, terrain improvements and a new chalet.

Mount McIntyre, the starting and ending point of an already impressive system of lighted and unlighted cross-country ski trails, received trail improvements. And Grey Mountain had improvements to its biathlon trails and gun range. Even Whitehorse-area schools received lighting upgrades and improvements. And after the Games many of Yukon's sports clubs will be left with valuable equipment: the boxers have a new boxing ring; alpine skiers have new bibs, timing equipment, B-netting and poles; archers have targets, safety nets and stands; judoists have two sets of mats; ringette players have new shot clocks; squash players have referee chairs and a temporary squash court; synchronized swimmers now have an underwater sound system and umpire chairs; table-tennis players have new tables, balls and dividers; and the list goes on.

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Superdogs

Why Yukon Quest dogs are the ultimate endurance athletes.

The superdogs that we know and love, and that get all the glory, are purebreds: Lassie (collie), the Littlest Hobo (German shepherd), Old Yeller (black-mouth cur) and Tin Tin's companion Snowy (white wire-fox terrier). It's easy enough to overlook the dogs in a musher's yard because they can be a funny-looking lot. There's a mish-mash, both accidental and intentional, of breeds: Alaskan husky, bloodhound, pointer, Labrador, Pekinese and Norwegian elk hound. The sled dog is the ultimate heinz-57.

"Many different cross-breedings have been tried over the years to target different characteristics. Among the breeds used are border collie, collie, boxer and German shorthaired pointer," says Dr. John Overell, a Dawson City veterinarian who has been involved with the Yukon Quest since 1999. "Mushers are breeding for strength and intelligence. The ideal sled dog runs forever happily, eats nothing, can pull large loads and never gets injured. And, if it's racing, does all this more quickly than the competition."

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Outside

Farewell Fort Lauderdale

Spring break ideas that will take you far from the beach.

Cycling Vancouver

Get on your bike to explore in and around the city.

R&R

reViews: books

V0N 1B0: General Delivery Whistler, B.C. and A Boy of Good Breeding.

Citysnap Calendar

Find out what's going on in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

Time Flies

Word find and North of Ordinary trivia.

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