Yukon who is who

Darrell Pasloski (b. 1960)

Darrell Pasloski was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba and his family moved to Saskatchewan when he was a year old. He graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 1982. In 1986, he worked at the Shopper Drug Mart in Red Deer, took over the store in 1987 and also opened a store in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.¹⁾

In 1991, Pasloski and his family moved to the Yukon and purchased the Qwanlin Mall Shoppers Drug Mart. In 1996, the owners of the downtown Shoppers Drug Mart retired and Paslowski bought the store. In 2006, the Qwanlin store had a major renovation and greatly expanded its size. After twelve years of operating both stores, Paslowski sold the downtown outlet to Tracey Keefer, a pharmacist and one of his former employees.²⁾

Pasloski ran unsuccessfully in the 2008 federal election as a Conservative, coming in second to Larry Bagnell in a four-way race. He ran for the leadership of the Yukon Party in May 2011 and was sworn in as leader and premier on June 11th. He did not have a seat in the Legislative Assembly until the election when he represented the new electoral district of Mountainview. The Yukon Party was defeated in the 2016 election and Pasloski announced his resignation as leader on election night.³⁾

Under Pasloski’s leadership, the government committed to creating a Centre for Mining at Yukon College and moving the College to university status. The Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan was developed during Pasloski’s leadership.⁴⁾