The New Gold Rush: How the Yukon became Canada’s most reality-TVed jurisdiction – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – July 11, 2016)

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Two years ago, the National Post wrote about how the Yukon is the last place in Canada still handing out homesteads. In the months since, an incredible four separate production companies asked for contacts to shoot a “Yukon Homesteaders” reality T.V. pilot.

The Yukon might be the country’s most lightly populated jurisdiction, but it’s apparently filled with Canada’s most watchable people. As of this writing, there is one “Yukon” series for every 5,000 Yukoners, and many more movie-length documentaries and special episodes set in the territory. The result is arguably the world’s highest regional per-capita density of documentary camera crews.

In a place renowned for its misfits and recluses, this hasn’t always been the most welcome development. But there is apparently no noun or activity that can’t be made into a hit T.V. show without adding the words “Yukon” or “Klondike.” Thus, for Canadians noticing that their American and European friends keep asking them Yukon-themed questions lately, it might be prudent to bone up on the current lineup of Klondike T.V.

Gold Rush – Discovery – 2010

Gold Rush is another Discovery Channel show that has angered Yukoners. The show follows gold mining crews operating in the Klondike, as well as Guyana and parts of the United States. As Yukon old-timers were soon horrified to see, the show depicted men with minimal safety equipment bulldozing trees without a permit and lighting ponds on fire.

“We have received numerous complaints about the activities shown on these programs since they began,” read a 2015 letter by Scott Kent, the Yukon’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. “Some of the incidents shown on television broadcasts this season are under investigation.”

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