The return of the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) to Whitehorse on March 8-15, 2026 is a really big deal and may someday be recalled as the Yukon’s finest hour.
After all, these were the games that Vladimir Putin’s Russia was supposed to host, which he blew by invading Ukraine. Then the N.W.T. was asked if they could possibly bump their 2028 games ahead to 2026 and save the day, but they said no for construction reasons.
“It really wasn’t any more complicated than four or five great men making one great decision.”
Next, the AWG international committee asked Whitehorse if we could pinch hit for Russia in 2026 in a kind of venue emergency. The reply–not a direct quote, was: “Cool. No prob, dude. Bring it on.”
I recall feeling very proud of our beloved little territory that summer day in 2023 and couldn’t help wondering what Games founder “Cal” Miller might have said if he were still with us and able to say anything.
I knew Cal well back in the early ’70s, not only as a regular in his Capital Hotel on Main St. in Whitehorse. He was even a “silent partner” in one of my prospecting ventures in Atlin. Although he wasn’t very silent when it didn’t pan out and it cost him $5,000 because he bought me a D-4 dozer to dig many trenches that had everything but gold in them.
And here is a little “Cal” Miller yarn very few people know: “Cal” was a nickname that stood for Calgary, where he grew up selling newspapers on street corners before he drifted out to Vancouver then up to the Yukon where he became a living legend before his time.
I never did find out his real first name but it definitely wasn’t Calvin. And, yes, it’s true he was the ‘father’ of the Arctic Winter Games but Cal’s language at the moment of creation was more colourful than the official version I just read in the AWG history.
Here’s what he really said to N.W.T. commissioner Stu Hodgson as the two of them sat in Québec City watching their hockey teams getting pummelled by provincial squads at the 1967 Canada Winter Games:
“This is BS,” Cal growled. “We should start our own games just for the northern territories and Alaska. Screw the provinces.”
Hodgson agreed, saying, “I’m in,” and the ball started rolling.
Yukon Commissioner James “Jimmy” Smith (his real name) was known at the time as “Mr. Yes” because he never said no to any idea that benefitted his territory. Alaska’s governor, Wally Hickel, was the same kind of guy, but I heard his response was “Oh hell yeah! Let’s do it.”
Yukon MLA (and later commissioner) Ken McKinnon hammered out the details with Hodgson in Yellowknife on Smith’s behalf. He once said they almost had a hockey fight over who got the first Games but were friends at the end.
It really wasn’t any more complicated than four or five great men making one great decision, and the first Arctic Winter Games were held in Yellowknife in 1970, with most of the interest and chatter being on who would win the men’s gold medal in hockey.
