A royal buzz over news William and Kate to visit Yukon
The details are few at this point, but enough to generate excitement in Yukon — Will and Kate are on their way, sometime this fall.
"I think it's great," said Louise Venables, in Whitehorse. "It's nice to have royalty here in Yukon. It's a special place.
"We had [Prince] Charles here one year, and everybody just loved having him here."
Prince Charles was the last British royal to see the Yukon, in 2001. He visited Whitehorse and Mayo.
John Phillips, visiting Yukon from B.C., is also pleased to hear Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will be visiting his province on the same tour this fall.
He's a big fan of the Queen, but called Will and Kate "a hard set of working young royals," that he'd love to take out fishing near Comox.
"The one thing the monarchy does do is bring stability, you know, it's something that's constant," Phillips said. "The world's a crazy place right now, you know?"
Meeting and greeting Yukoners
Yukon Commissioner Doug Phillips has known for weeks about the Duke and Duchess' plan to visit the territory this fall, but he had to keep mum until it was made public on Wednesday.
"This has been worked on for some time," he said. "It's been driving me crazy not to be able to tell anybody about it!"
Phillips says he doesn't yet have any further details about the visit, such as dates or places the royal couple might go in Yukon.
"They choose when they want to come, and they choose where they want to go," he said.
"Just knowing what they do and what they've done in other royal tours, is they like to meet people. So, I suspect there'll be a lot of meeting and greeting of Yukoners."
Phillips says he first inquired, more than three years ago, about inviting William and Kate. He said it seemed like Yukon was due for a royal visit.
"We've seen tours in Nunavut and Northwest Territories and the rest of Canada, and so we kept reminding people that the Yukon's got to be next, got to be soon."
News of the fall visit prompted some people to question whether it might coincide with Yukon's territorial election, but Phillips said royals typically avoid drop-ins during campaigns.
The election must be called by October 14.
