Sidney Alexander “Sandy” Silver, premier of Yukon (2016–23), teacher, musician, volunteer (born 15 October 1969 in Antigonish, NS). Sandy Silver has been a member of the Yukon legislature since 2011. He became interim leader of the Yukon Liberal Party in 2012, leader in 2014 and premier of the Yukon in 2016, when his party won a majority government. After leading the Yukon through the COVID-19 pandemic and leaving the government with a $55-million surplus, Silver announced he would not seek re-election. He stepped down as Liberal leader and premier in January 2023.
Early Years and Education
Sandy Silver was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, to Eugene and Germaine Silver. Theyoperated Silvers Cleaning & Laundry for four decades. He has three siblings — Tim, Mike and Gena — all of whom have established careers in the medical field. Like his father, Sandy Silver loved music and grew up practising the guitar and drums in his family’s basement. He also played basketball and raced motorcycles.
Silver attended St. Francis Xavier University and earned a degree in mathematics, with a minor in psychology. In 1996, he completed his Bachelor of Education from the University of Maine. After graduating, Silver and a friend (also a teacher) packed up and drove to Yukon, encouraged by another friend who had moved there and enthused about life in northern Canada.
Move to Yukon
In August 1996, Silver and his friend reached Whitehorse, Yukon’s largest city. On their first day there, they approached staff at F.H. Collins Secondary School and offered to coach basketball. The two were immediately hired as substitute teachers. Silver taught at the Whitehorse school for two years before moving north to Dawson City to teach math at Robert Service School in 1998. He immersed himself in the community, coaching basketball, badminton and volleyball, and volunteering with the Dawson City Fire Department, White Ribbon Yukon and the Learning Disabilities Association of Yukon. He was also president of the Dawson City Music Festival and performed with the Pointer Brothers, a popular Yukon band, for two years. Silver was also involved in the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in community. He supervised teacher practicums, mentored at-risk teenagers and participated in the biennial Moosehide Gathering, a celebration of Indigenous culture.
Liberal MLA in Yukon Legislature
Sandy Silver entered territorial politics in the fall 2011 election as the Yukon Liberal Party candidate for the Klondike riding. (Klondike is the oldest riding in Yukon, established in 1905.) Silver was elected, as was Darius Elias, incumbent MLA for Vuntut Gwitchin. But other Liberal seats were lost and they were reduced to third-party status, behind the winning Yukon Party and opposition New Democratic Party. In August 2012, less than a year later, Elias left the party to become an Independent, leaving Silver the only Liberal MLA in the Yukon legislature and interim leader of the party.
Leader of the Yukon Liberal Party
In February 2014, Silver was acclaimed as leader of the Yukon Liberal Party. In the 2016 territorial election campaign, Silver emphasized the party’s commitment to jobs, the economy and the environment. While premier Darrell Pasloski of the Yukon Party vowed to fight a federally mandated carbon tax, Silver supported it. He pledged to work with the federal government to ensure that Yukoners received the rebates associated with the tax.
Premier
On 7 November 2016, the Liberal Party won 11 of the 19 seats in the Yukon legislature. It was an increase of 10 seats from the previous election and one of the largest gains for any party in Yukon history. Silver received more than 59 per cent of the votes in his riding, retaining his seat and becoming premier.
In addition to his responsibilities as premier, Silver became Minister of Finance and Minister of the Executive Council Office. This included intergovernmental duties and Indigenous relations. Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Silver appointed a gender-balanced cabinet, in which three of the six ministers were women. In his mandate letter (6 January 2017), Silver stated that his government would focus on job creation by “balancing efforts to strengthen and diversify our economy with environmental stewardship.” He also emphasized a focus on relations with Yukon First Nations, working “actively and continuously to advance reconciliation and uphold the spirit and intent of First Nation Final and Self-Government Agreements.”
In early December 2016, Silver attended a meeting of Canada’s First Ministers in Ottawa, accompanied by Chief Roberta Joseph and Chief Doris Bill, to discuss the country’s climate plan. Like most other provinces and territories, Yukon adopted the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, which committed the territorial and federal governments to partner on renewable energy development, research, and energy efficiency. According to the agreement, 100 per cent of revenue from carbon pricing in the territory would be retained by the Yukon.
Health care funding was also a focus for Silver and the Yukon government. In December 2016, the First Ministers rejected a funding agreement proposed by the federal Liberal government. However, the territorial governments in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut negotiated a separate agreement in January 2017. In addition to the existing Canada Health Transfer program, which guarantees an increase in base health funding by at least three per cent per year, the federal government provided an additional $6.2 million for home care infrastructure and $5.2 million for mental health initiatives in Yukon over a 10-year period beginning in the 2017–18 fiscal year.
In March 2020, Silver announced that two Yukon residents had tested positive for COVID-19. His government mandated the closure of some non-essential businesses, and travel between Alaska and Yukon was restricted. In October 2021, Silver announced that vaccines would be mandatory for public servants including health care workers and teachers. Though the territory saw slightly above-average rates of COVID at that time, the pandemic’s ultimate death toll was comparatively low. By April 2023, Yukon’s total COVID fatality rate was significantly lower than the national average. Programs offered by Silver’s government, including $85 million in support for more than 500 local businesses, helped the Yukon economy weather the pandemic relatively well.
Silver’s Liberals lost ground in the April 2021 election, winning eight legislative seats. The Yukon Party also took eight and the NDP took three. The Liberals and Silver remained in power, forming a minority government with NDP support. A relatively high level of economic growth eliminated the deficit in the 2021–22 fiscal year, leaving it with a $55-million surplus. Silver was nonetheless criticized in the press for borrowing too much overall during his tenure.
In September 2022, Silver announced that he would not run for re-election as MLA. Four months later, his Cabinet member Ranj Pillai succeeded him as premier. As of August 2023, Silver continued to serve as Minister of Finance, Minister of the Public Service Commission, and Minister responsible for the Yukon Liquor Corporation and the Yukon Lottery Commission.