Tony Penikett has spent 25 years in public life, including two years in the House of Commons as chief of staff to federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent; five terms in the Yukon Legislative Assembly; and two terms as the Premier of Yukon Territory. His government negotiated settlements of Yukon First Nation land claims and passed pioneering legislation in the areas of education, health, and language. It also organised Yukon 2000, a unique bottom-up economic-planning process. Between 1997 and 2001, he served as a Minister of Negotiations and a Minister of Labour for the Government of British Columbia. As Chief Negotiator, he was also instrumental in the devolution of Nunavut from the Northwest Territories. He is the author of one book, Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making in British Columbia, and two films, The Mad Trapper and La Patrouille Perdue.
UBC Press is currently publishing Tony's second book, Hunting the Northern Character, launched at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, 13-15 October 2017. The following is the description of the book provided by UBC Press:
We often hear world leaders, environmentalists, and the media invoke "the northern character" and "Arctic identity", but what do these terms mean, exactly? Stereotypes abound, from Dudley Do-Right to Northern Exposure, but these southern perspectives fail to capture northern realities. During decades of service as a legislator, mediator and negotiator, Tony witnessed a new northern consciousness grow out of the challenges of the Cold War, climate change, land right struggles, and the boom and bust of resource megaprojects. His lively account of clashes and accommodations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders not only tracks his footsteps in his hunt for a northern identity but tells the story of an Arctic that the world does not yet know.