You might know Max as stoic and understated, but once you open the door to his storied history you are brought into a colourful and lively world.
Obviously Max Fraser is a man with an impressive roster of talents, interests and accomplishments
Knowing someone for years doesn’t necessarily mean you know much about them at all. I quickly found this out after sitting down to talk with long-time Whitehorse journalist, filmmaker, military history buff (and more recently, musician), Max Fraser.
You might know Max as stoic and understated, but once you open the door to his storied history you are brought into a colourful and lively world. Max is a serious and self-contained guy. But don’t let the calm waters fool you – there is also a deep appreciation for connection, fun and hidden emotionality bubbling under the surface.
Let’s start with some roots.
Max comes from Scottish military stock who first arrived in North America to serve in various war campaigns in the 1700s, then settled on land grants afterward. He is a product of these hardy adventurers: an upstanding man of integrity; a gentleman who holds fast to old-school traditions and reverence for the preservation of our collective history and stories.
He is also a fierce defender of democracy and social justice. Max found a means of expression for these values early on.
The tiny seed that would become an oak tree was planted when Max was a young lad with a paper route in Vancouver. There began his early fascination with “the magic of information” and a curiosity about what’s going on in the world. In high school Max got involved with his school newspaper, from there became a copy boy in the newsroom of the Vancouver Province paper, then enrolled in journalism school.
As a 21-year-old graduate Max was ripe for adventure. When his instructor told him about a summer opportunity in the Yukon as a reporter-photographer for the Whitehorse Star, his first reaction was “Where the hell is Whitehorse?” But it sparked his curiosity. After doing some research at the college library he was game to go north and left Vancouver for good, straight into a whole new world.
Max describes those early years in Whitehorse as “some of the best years of my life.” Whitehorse of 1974 was a small town of 11,000 which was a lively scene full of young people where every mundane errand (post office, bank, grocery store) was a social event.
There was a plethora of bars and live music every night of the week. “And there was a lot of dancing,” he says. “Everyone danced back then.”
Max loved the wide-open spaces of the Yukon, combined with the open acceptance and fast friendships that form in a small community. Max takes pride in his ability to come from the city as a young man and adapt to a completely different environment, embracing rural living, building his own house, developing a do-it-yourself lifestyle and then proudly becoming a dad to his daughter Robin.
Three months at the Whitehorse Star turned into four years, which allowed Max to travel all over the territory, immersing himself in learning and writing about the Yukon of that time, which was very much still a colony of Canada.
Various stepping stones led him to several other journalistic ventures, including running a print production unit at the Yukon Indian News, where he worked alongside a variety of strong, determined and politically influential First Nation leaders.
Max says it was an exciting time to witness and be a part of the evolution of governance in the Yukon. The Yukon First Nation Land Claims process began in 1973, and the changeover from a Territorial Advisory Council to our Yukon Legislative Assembly set the stage for Max to take a turn in his career from journalism toward more involvement in the local political landscape.
Throughout most of the 1980s and into the ’90s Max did extensive work for the New Democratic Party in various capacities including electoral campaigns, research, media, communications and political assistant postings for former political leaders such as Tony Penikett, Piers McDonald, and Audrey McLaughlin.
In the late ’90s while chaperoning his daughter’s class on a trip to Italy and France to tour WW2 battlefields, Max’s passions took yet another pivotal turn. After visiting cemeteries full of Canadian soldiers’ graves (and realizing that any one of them could have been his father who had served overseas) he was “bit by the Remembrance bug,” as he puts it, which was the beginning of an avid interest in military history.
Since then, Max started to aim his journalism lens toward documentary filmmaking, beginning with several short films on Yukon-based subjects. In 2011 he released the notable and award-winning Never Happen Here – The Whitehorse 911 Story.
The film is now a jewel of Whitehorse history and has been screened at film festivals in Canada and Alaska, and seen on CBC’s documentary channel, Whitehorse Community Cable and Alaska Public TV. Max says he would like to produce a follow-up film to mark the 25th anniversary of that event.
In keeping with Max’s military interests and researching his father’s WW2 regiment, he then released the heartfelt Bond of Strangers -The Operation Husky Story in 2015.
This film documents an emotional and life-changing journey that ten Canadians made to Italy to retrace the steps that their soldiering forefathers had made during the invasion of Sicily 70 years prior, the same path as his dad. It aired on the Knowledge Network, Whitehorse Community TV and was taken on tour for several special screenings and festivals across Canada.
Max’s more recent film work is a foray into the world of feature film: an award-winning post-apocalyptic eco-fantasy (Polaris) filmed in the Yukon which Max co-produced. Released in 2022, it garnered ‘most popular showing’ at Yukon’s Available Light Film Festival, and has screened at festivals and theatres across Canada and around the world. It can now be seen on CRAVE TV and globally on streaming services.
Max is not one for bucket lists, but he does have a passion project he would love to see come to fruition. This one will document the life of ‘Klondike’ Joe Boyle, an adventurous and colourful mining entrepreneur in Dawson City, as well as a decorated WWI hero.
Max sees filmmaking as an investment in ideas. “You gotta have a lot of irons in the fire and whatever lights up first is what you go with.”
There is yet another iron in Max’s fire of late: music. What started out as casual campfire singing, turned into the formation of a folk group a few years ago called the Semi-Optimistics. During the pandemic, Max dusted off his grandfather’s violin and has since been accompanying musicians at Folk Society coffeehouses and Whitewater Jams, as well as sharing the lead on vocals and violin in a four-piece venture called ‘Road Trip’ (along with his partner Arlin McFarlane on bass).
Obviously Max Fraser is a man with an impressive roster of talents, interests and accomplishments, but what are the elements that tie them together? What does it all boil down to?
Max notes that when he first came to the Yukon, he noticed there was always an opportunity to volunteer for things everywhere he went. This formed the character that was needed for public service. Subsequently, the primary driver of Max’s work in journalism, film, and music has always been to serve the interests of people while forming connections to them and telling stories that define our unique community.
His will to pitch in, be a part of things, offer his skills, and form long standing relationships with people is the gold that Max brings: “It’s my love of friendship and community … it’s contributing to the social wealth of the Yukon,” as he puts it.
Max demonstrated this ‘gold’ last year, after the newspaper that had originally brought him to the Yukon 50 years ago (The Whitehorse Daily Star) stopped its presses after 124 years in operation. For Max, this represented a heavy blow to the longstanding “vigorous journalism” he has such a passion for, and he was compelled to try to revive it.
After various community supporters pulled together for the cause, a fresh and bright new paper, The Yukon Star, was born, with Max at the helm as publisher and former Whitehorse Star staff climbing aboard.
Although the paper was ultimately and sadly unable to succeed, the editions that were published demonstrate undeniable excellence. The valiant attempt of those who worked alongside Max’s capable direction to preserve the high standards and accountability of responsible journalism, is truly commendable.
If you see Max Fraser at the post office, grocery store, bank, or local bar in your everyday mundane travels, be sure to stop and say hello. If he doesn’t know you, just introduce yourself. He’s been meeting up with people that way since he arrived here in 1974, and it keeps him in touch with the nostalgic small town feel and social connection he likes so much about Whitehorse.
Illegitimi Non Carborundum, Max.
