Mr. Speaker, in the summer of 1896, three men, Skookum Jim, George Carmack, and Tagish Charlie, found large gold nuggets in the gravel bottom of Bonanza Creek. Their cry of joy started the world's greatest gold rush. Approximately 200,000 men and women from all over the world converged on the Klondike in search of gold. More than 40,000 of them found it.
In 1898, Dawson City was the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg, and Yukon, for so long the proud home of first nations people, was created from the western area of the Northwest Territories.
On today's date, June 13, 1898, assent was given for the Yukon Act, and four years later, in 1902, we sent our first member to Parliament, James H. Ross, a Liberal.
I stand to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the founding of Yukon territory. I invite all members and their families to come north this summer to visit the most beautiful riding in the country, enjoy Yukon hospitality, and bask in the glow of the midnight sun.