Yukon who is who

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Alice Pamela McGuire, nee Cletheroe (1935 - 2021)
	
Alice Cletheroe was born to parents Amy Laberge and William James Cletheroe and raised at Little Violet Creek in the Livingstone mining district. Her father was an Englishman from the Falkland Islands and her mother was Ta’an Kwäch’än from the Lake Laberge area.((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 245.)) Alice’s family moved into Whitehorse when she and her siblings were school age. Her parents passed on their skills in hunting and trapping.((“Amy Clethero.” Yukon Archives, Biographical sketch, Amy Lebarge Clethero fonds.)) 

In 1978, McGuire was a successful businesswoman in Haines Junction, running the Blue Mountain Motel, Restaurant and Service Station and the General Store. She was active in local politics with YANSI (Yukon Association of Non-Status Indians).((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 241.)) She was involved for years with the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council, established in 1974.((Dana Hatherly, “Remembering Alice McGuire, the first Yukon First Nations woman elected to Yukon Legislative Assembly.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 2 March 2022.)) Jack Brewster convinced her to run for territorial political office.((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 241.))
	
Alice McGuire was elected as a Liberal to the Yukon legislature in 1978 representing the Kluane district. She was the first Indigenous woman elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly.((“Alice McGuire.” //The Legislature Speaks.// Yukon Government, 2019 website: http://yukonlegislaturespeaks.ca/index.php/biographies/mla/alice-mcguire)) She defeated Hilda Watson who was the leader of the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party. The leader of the Liberal party was Chris Pearson and the NDP leader was Tony Penikett. Alice served in the legislature from 1978 to 1982.((“Late Liberal MLA made history in Yukon politics.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 17 December 2021.)) During her term, construction of a pipeline along the Alaska Highway was being planned, land claim negotiations were off-again on-again, and the Yukon government continued to push for more control over territorial-type programs.((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 243.))
	
McGuire and Liberal leader Ron Veale lost their seats in the June 1982 territorial election.((“Late Liberal MLA made history in Yukon politics.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 17 December 2021.)) Jack Brewster’s son Bill was elected in McGuire’s riding.((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 241.)) The McGuires had sold their businesses in Haines Junction, so Alice and her husband started McGuire Trucking Ltd serving the route between Whitehorse to Inuvik under a contract with Points North Transportation. In the late 1980s, Alice worked for Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and then was accountant and administrator for the Tagish Kwan Corporation, the business arm of Kwanlin Dün. In the early 1990s, she operated the historic Caribou Hotel in Carcross.((Joyce Hayden, //Yukon’s Women of Power.// Windwalker Press, 1999: 264-266.)) She also ran the restaurant in the Casa Loma Motel in Whitehorse. She was a great cook and storyteller.((Dana Hatherly, “Remembering Alice McGuire, the first Yukon First Nations woman elected to Yukon Legislative Assembly.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 2 March 2022.)) In 1919, Alice McGuire was the Elders Representative in the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council government.((“Council Members.” //Ta’an Kwäch’än Council,// 2019 website: http://taan.ca/governance/chief-and-council/))