Clive Tanner, who served on the former Yukon Territorial Council from 1970 to 1974, died Sept. 9 in Sidney, B.C. He was 88.

While a member of the council, Tanner also served as the Yukon’s minister of Health.

Late in the 1970s, the territory introduced party-aligned elections to the new Legislative Assembly of Yukon.

Tanner ran as the Yukon Liberal Party candidate in the Porter Creek West riding in the 1978 election. He did not secure the seat as the Yukon Territorial Progressive Conservative Party formed the government under the late Chris Pearson’s leadership.

Tanner relocated to Sidney, owning bookstores there and in Victoria.

The late lawmaker had developed an interest in the Yukon after he had hitchhiked to the territory.

He had been encouraged to relocate here by a driver who had stopped for him, Christine, his wife of 61 years, told the Victoria Times Colonist.

Once in the Yukon, the paper recalled, the Tanners bought a small newsstand-type business which sold a variety of products, including books, tobacco, pipes and gold jewelry from Dawson City.

They opened a book store, adding an art gallery in the lower level – and lived in the Yukon for a decade.

That establishment evolved into Mac’s Fireweed Books on Main Street.

Tanner rekindled his participation in politics when he became a candidate in the B.C. Liberal Party’s 1987 leadership race to succeed Art Lee.

Tanner took himself out of the contest after he injured a leg.

He served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1991 to 1996, as a Liberal member for the constituency of Saanich North and the Islands.

“Clive was a giant in our community,” Sidney Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith, a close friend, told the Times Colonist.

“He had an enormous passion for Sidney and gave a huge amount of his time to the boards of innumerable community organizations.

“I really learned the meaning of community involvement through working with Clive.”

McNeil-Smith said Tanner demonstrated how local business can be truly engaged with the community and support community organizations.

“He just had a passion. He got up every day to try and make things a little better,” McNeil-Smith said.