Peter (Swede) Hanson (1925 – 1986)
Peter Hanson was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec.1) He left home when he was twelve with a Grade Seven education. He served during the Second World War with the Black Watch Regiment and did a tour overseas. In his 20s, after the war, he was working in a central Manitoba mine when he was offered a job by Keno Hill Mines when the company was re-opening the Calumet deposit. Hanson saw an opportunity to make enough money to make a return trip to England and so he arrived in the Mayo district in 1946. The Calumet camp was rough, and the men were a hard-drinking group of card players. Hanson’s job ended after a wild party at the mine in the summer of 1947. He went to work at Kembel’s sawmill but had trouble cashing his cheque, so he hired on as a deckhand on the sternwheeler Keno. The wages were not as good as at the mine, but the air was cleaner.2)
Hanson foresaw the closure of the riverboat era and in 1949 he was running the Silver Inn at Mayo. The Inn was originally constructed on the Duncan Creek Road. It was torn down and rebuilt in Mayo for owner Bob Palmer. During the 1950s, Hanson prospected in the summer and worked for Keno Hill during the winters.3)
In the late 1950s, Hanson briefly left Mayo for Edmonton where he lived through a second failed marriage. He returned to Mayo and did a variety of jobs including town foreman and bus driver for Hutton Services. Hanson was a Progressive Conservative supporter before party politics arrived in the Yukon. The party prompted him to run in the 1978 election and he won the Mayo riding by a ten-vote margin.4) He defeated former territorial councillor Gordon McIntyre in the election and on a recount.5)
When party leader Chris Pearson formed his first cabinet, Hanson became the minister of Renewable Resources. After eleven months he was forced to take a seat on the back bench due to his involvement in a deal to allow First Nation trapping in Kluane National Park and Reserve.6) He was later appointed chair of a select committee to debate improvements to the new wildlife management legislation. In the 1982 election, Hanson lost his seat in the riding to NDP Piers McDonald.7)
Hanson lived in Whitehorse for the last six years of his life but still called Mayo his home.8)