Yukon’s booze ban

I received my regular issue of Canada’s History today. Of interest to me was the article on prohibition (“Making Canada Dry,” June-July 2020). I looked at the table on page 26, where it shows that Yukon was subject to prohibition from 1918 to 1921. This does not match my knowledge of the topic. The issue of prohibition was raised forcefully by church groups and women in Yukon in 1916, which forced the territorial government to hold a plebiscite on the topic in August of 1916. The “wets” won by three votes. The federal government invoked a ban on alcohol in April of 1918, which lasted until the end of 1919. After that, the prohibitionists began to campaign again, and in May of 1920 the “drys” won the day by forty votes. Prohibition in Yukon lasted only until July of the following year.

Michael Gates Whitehorse

A Sunday school group from the Hillhurst Presbyterian Church in Calgary protests against alcohol circa 1912–16. Church and women’s groups led the campaign for temperance and prohibition.