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'Whitehorse' (IPA: /ʍaɪt.hoʊɹs/) (2006 population 20,461; CA population 22,898) is the capital of the Yukon Territory of Canada. Whitehorse accounts for more than 75% of the territory's population.
Whitehorse is located at Historic Mile 918 (current kilometrepost calibration is kilometre 1,425.3) of the Alaska Highway and is the former terminus of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway from Skagway, Alaska (although the rails are still there, the train only goes as far as Carcross now). At the head of navigation on the Yukon River, the city was an important supply and stage centre during the Klondike Gold Rush. It has been the territorial capital since 1953^[1], when the seat was moved from Dawson City after the construction of the Klondike Highway. Whitehorse is in the mountain climate region, the tundra soil region, the arctic vegetation region, and the boreal cordillera ecozone.
The city gets its name from the White Horse rapids, which were said to look like the mane of a white horse. The rapids have disappeared under Schwatka Lake behind a hydroelectric dam, which was completed in 1958.
Whitehorse is a government town, and it is the home of the main campus of Yukon College. A $45 million (CAD) multiplex centre has been built for the Canada Winter Games in 2007. Whitehorse also previously hosted the 1972, 1980, 1986, 1992 and 2000 Arctic Winter Games.

Contents

Law and government

Geography and climate

Transportation

Education

Sports

Arts and culture

Army and Air Cadet Force

Communications and media

Television

Radio

Print

Telecommunications

Notable Whitehorsians

Demographics

See also

References

External links

Law and government

Whitehorse is a city under Yukon municipal legislation, and is governed by the Whitehorse City Council, a city council of six councillors and one mayor, elected every three years by eligible Canadian citizens of age 18 or older who reside within city limits. The current mayor, Bev Buckway, was elected October 19, 2006.

Geography and climate

Like most of the Yukon, Whitehorse has a dry subarctic climate, although with warmer winters than some Canadian prairies cities. Whitehorse experiences annual temperature average daily highs of 21 °C (70 °F) in July and average daily lows of −22 °C (−7.6 °F) in January. Record high temperature was 34 °C (93 °F) in June 1969 and the lowest was −52 °C (−62 °F) in January 1947. Whitehorse has little precipitation with an average annual snowfall of 145 centimetres (4.75 ft) and 163 millimetres (6.4 in) of rainfall.
According to Meteorological Service of Canada, Whitehorse has the distinction of being Canada's driest city, mainly because it lies in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains. Surprisingly, despite its relative cold, Whitehorse was ranked among Canadian cities with the most comfortable climate.
Whitehorse has been described as "pearls on a string", with its residential, industrial and service subdivisions located along the main thoroughfares that carry traffic within city limits, with large gaps of undeveloped (often hilly) land between them. The Alaska Highway is the primary roadway, with branch roads reaching additional subdivisions. One such branch road, signed as "Highway 1A" and following Two Mile Hill Road, 4th Avenue, 2nd Avenue and Robert Service Way, is the main access to downtown, Riverdale and the Marwell Industrial Area. Other branch roads (Range Road, Hamilton Boulevard, Mayo Road) access smaller residential areas and recreational facilities.

Transportation

Whitehorse is served by the Whitehorse International Airport and has scheduled service to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Fairbanks and Frankfurt, Germany (summer months). The airport was developed as part of the Northwest Staging Route in 1941-42 and has two long paved runways. A wartime-era hangar served as terminal building from about 1960, and was replaced in December 1985 with a modern terminal; expansion of the terminal is to be completed in 2010.
During the September 11, 2001 attacks, three aircraft approaching the United States from Asia were diverted to Whitehorse as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon, including a Korean Air 747 that was feared hijacked but this was not the case — the plane was low on fuel. Many of the buildings in the downtown area below the airport were evacuated. Those who witnessed the plane's landing said that they saw the Royal Canadian Mounted Police order the crew out at gunpoint.

Surface access to Whitehorse is provided by a network of highways, including the international Alaska Highway connecting the Yukon with the Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta highway networks.
There is presently no active railway service to Whitehorse; the city is reached by the unmaintained tracks of the White Pass and Yukon Route, with the last scheduled service to Whitehorse stopping in October 1982. The White Pass Railway started scheduled service from Skagway, Alaska, to Carcross, 45 miles south of Whitehorse, in the spring of 2007 but this was disrupted by high lake water levels in August 2007. Speculation of a trans-continental rail link to Alaska includes one possible route option through Whitehorse; a report has recommended a hub at Carmacks, with a spur line to Whitehorse and on to the Inside Passage of Alaska.
The Yukon River is essentially navigable, but no passenger or freight services use the river at Whitehorse.
Within Whitehorse, there are several taxi companies, as well as the city-owned Whitehorse Transit which provides bus service on weekdays and Saturdays from morning until early evening. There is a waterfront tram, known as the "trolley", which provides transport along a short rail section along the Yukon River; it is chiefly tourist-oriented and is not yet integrated into the municipal transit system.
The city road network is adequate, although it is congested during rush hours and discussions occasionally occur as to how it might better be managed, such as designating one-way streets. There are some bottlenecks, such as the single two-lane bridge to the Riverdale subdivision; street surfaces are in fairly good condition

Education

Whitehorse has several schools as part of a Yukon-government operated public school system, and is the home of the main campus of Yukon College.
'There are three high schools (Grade 8 -12):'

★ Vanier Catholic Secondary (Catholic)

★ FH Collins Secondary (offers programs for English and French Immersion)

★ Porter Creek Secondary
'Nine elementary schools (Kindergarten - Grade 7):'

★ Christ the King Elementary (Catholic)

★ Holy Family Elementary (Catholic)

★ Elijah Smith Elementary

★ Golden Horn Elementary

★ Hidden Valley Elementary (outside of city limits)

★ Jack Hulland Elementary

★ Selkirk Elementary

★ Takhini (pronounced TUH-KEENIE) Elementary

★ Ecole Whitehorse Elementary (entirely French Immersion)
'One Primary School (Kindergarten - Grade 3):'

★ Grey Mountain Primary
'One French First Language school (Kindergarten - Grade 12):'

★ Ecole Emilie Tremblay
'Specialized programs:'

★ Wood St. School (programs are attended by students drawn from the high schools)

★ Individual Learning Centre (for students who have had trouble in the regular school program, and are not attending school)
The Catholic Schools of Whitehorse are attended by Catholic and non-Catholic students.
Outside of the one French First Language school, the territory does not have school boards; they do, however, have school councils for each school, composed of elected citizens (including parents of students in the school) and the administrators of the school. All teachers work directly, as Yukon Territorial employees, for the Department of Education.
Whitehorse also has Yukon College, a post-secondary institution with ties to the University of Northern British Columbia.

Sports

Whitehorse has no major junior sports teams; however, local high school teams play teams based in Alaska from time to time during a sports year. The local business community sponsors a number of local teams for baseball, hockey and soccer.

Arts and culture

Some of the tourist attractions in Whitehorse include Miles Canyon, the S.S. Klondike sternwheeler, the Yukon Transportation Museum, the MacBride Museum, the Old Log Church Museum, the Beringia Centre, Yukon Gardens, "Log Skyscrapers," the Whitehorse fish ladder, the Yukon Wildlife Preserve and the Takhini Hot Springs, and the Yukon visitor center.
Whitehorse supports a thriving, vibrant art and music scene, hosting several music festivals every year. In the dead of winter the Frostbite Music festival warms things up with everything from funk to klezmer punk and much more.

Army and Air Cadet Force

Located just outside of downtown Whitehorse, Whitehorse Cadet Summer Training Centre (WCSTC) offers a variety of cadet based courses and activities throughout the summer. Most of these courses last 6 weeks and are mainly leadership and adventure orientated.

Communications and media

Television

Whitehorse has two local television stations, one being an ad channel and the other a community posting board, both in slideshow style format with radio in the background; also, the regional Yukon bureau of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation contributes daily to the regional pan-northern newscast that originates in Yellowknife. CBC television established a TV transmitter in Whitehorse in 1968, using the Frontier Coverage Package until Anik satellite broadcasts became available early in 1973. In addition, some local TV programs are produced for APTN.

★ Channel 6 - CFWH, CBC North

★ Channel 7 - CBFT-15, SRC

★ Channel 11 - CHWT, APTN
Whitehorse is served by a cable television company: WHTV (Northern Television Systems Ltd.), founded in 1958, but purchased by Northwestel as of 1 September 2007, carries 71 analog channels plus a digital service; Northwestel will invest and upgrade the system for HDTV late in 2007. As with all of Canada, direct satellite TV is available from Canada's two competing providers, Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu.

Radio

★ AM 570 - CFWH, CBC Radio One

★ AM 610 - CKRW, hot adult contemporary

★ FM 93.5 - CHLA, TIS/weather

★ FM 96.1 - CKRW, hot adult contemporary

★ FM 98.1 - CHON, First Nations community

★ FM 100.7 - CIAY, religious

★ FM 102.1 - CFWY, La Première Chaîne

★ FM 104.5 - VF????, CBC Radio Two

Print

Whitehorse has two newspapers. The ''Whitehorse Star'', founded in 1900, progressed from a weekly to twice-weekly, three-times weekly during the 1960s, ran five times per week briefly around 1980-1983, and has been published five times per week since about 1986. The ''Yukon News'', founded in 1960, was a weekly until the late 1970s, and currently prints three times a week. Whitehorse also has periodicals for local special interests, such as ''L'Aurore boréale'' for the francophone community, and ''What's Up Yukon'' for everybody

Telecommunications

Internet service, including broadband service, is available from a number of local providers, including the cable television and telephone companies. The local telephone service provider is Northwestel.

Notable Whitehorsians

Although he grew up mostly in Dawson City, Canadian author Pierre Berton was born in Whitehorse. Robert W. Service started writing poetry when he moved to Whitehorse. Other famous people from Whitehorse include Senator Ione Christensen and actor Tahmoh Penikett (whose father served as premier of the Yukon).
Audrey McLaughlin was leader of the federal New Democratic Party (1989-1994) during the time she lived in Whitehorse and served as federal Member of Parliament for Yukon (1987-1997). Another Member of Parliament, Erik Nielsen (brother of actor Leslie Nielsen), was the Yukon's first cabinet minister in Ottawa, and served as interim Leader of the Opposition in 1983. The rock band The Moffatts are also from Whitehorse.
Former NHL players Bryon Baltimore and Peter Sturgeon were born in Whitehorse. Actress Amy Sloan is also from Whitehorse.

Demographics

See also

Bob Smart's Dream, a 1906 poem by Robert Service that speculates about the Whitehorse of the future

References

1. The Whitehorse Interactive Traveller's Guide

External links

★ Live webcam of Downtown Whitehorse

★ City of Whitehorse

★ Yukon Government Fact Page

★ Community Profile

★ DMOZ Whitehorse, Yukon Directory

★ Whitehorse, Yukon Attraction & Service Guide