Awg.ca
Title
Arctic Winter Games
Description
In 1967, Cal Miller is in Quebec City for the first Canada Winter Games and he can't hide his disappointment. The financial advisor to the Yukon team has just seen the more experienced southern athletes outplay his athletes from the North. It's a sentiment shared by Stuart Hodgson, the commissioner of the Northwest Territories, and Yukon Commissioner James Smith. They lament their teams' dismal performance when Miller gets an idea — "the best idea since the invention of 7-Up," he recalls in a CBC Radio interview. Miller suggests creating their own games for the North. It would provide a forum where athletes from the "circumpolar North" could compete on their own terms, on their own turf. After some discussion and a few phone calls Hodgson and Smith, as well as Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Arthur Laing, love the idea. A phone call later and the Governor of Alaska Walter Hickel is also on board.
Commissioner James Smith (Yukon), Commissioner Stuart Hodgson (Northwest Territories) and Governor Walter Hickel (Alaska) began the Arctic Winter Games in 1969. All three men were concerned about the lack of competition that our northern athletes and coaches had access to and the fact they were frequently exposed to lopsided scores when they participated in the Canada Games and other national events in the south.
Recognizing the differences of each Government and the various goals that the Arctic Winter Games may have within each jurisdiction, the Arctic Winter Games Corporation was formed with a mandate to act as the guardian of the Games and to ensure that the Games continued into the future. The formation of the Corporation also provided a mechanism for the member jurisdictions to provide political input but keep politics away from the day-to-day operations of the Arctic Winter Games.
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