Choosing the Yukon’s top 10 stories of the year is, to a large extent, an arbitrary task.

It’s a mixture of our judgment, of the stories which have attracted considerable media coverage, or those with the most significant effects on the largest number of Yukoners.

Here, then, are the Star’s top 10 stories of 2021.

1. The COVID-19 pandemic dominated much of the year, as it did in 2020.

In the Yukon, the virus and its fallout offered stable case rates followed by a sharp surge, the arrival of new variants, various vaccination programs, and regular public demonstrations.

There was also the suspension and reinstatement of a territorial state of emergency, and the imposition of a vaccine mandate for territorial and City of Whitehorse employees.

On Dec. 22, 2020, the government reported that our total case count – since March 2020 – was 59, from which one person had died and 58 had recovered. And there had been 5,872 people tested.

The total number of people tested one year later was 17,160. One year later, we have seen 1,650 Yukon residents confirmed with COVID, of whom 1,588 have recovered and 14 have died.

See a lengthy summary of what transpired elsewhere in today’s local news section.

2. You could say 2021 was the year of the election in the Yukon.

Territorial and federal elections were held, along with the regular municipal elections.

The territorial Liberal government was in the fifth year of its mandate, which is historically known to be treacherous ground for political parties, when Premier Sandy Silver pulled the trigger on an April vote. He announced Yukoners would be going to the polls after weeks of handing out goodies for voters.

Meanwhile, an opinion poll by the well-regarded Léger firm suggested the Yukon NDP was leading the polls, with the Liberals in third.

It was an odd campaign, with politicians struggling to find new ways to reach voters under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. They succeeded by making better use of newer technologies such as social media, and by going retro with an increased emphasis on door-knocking.

During the campaign, the Yukon Party, under new leader Currie Dixon, made a concerted effort to move itself toward the centre of the political spectrum.

The party dominated the popular vote, but that didn’t lead directly to more political success.

The Yukon NDP ran an energetic campaign full of potentially-costly promises that raised many eyebrows.

The Liberals offered a generally low-key campaign that was also full of promises. Silver spent long periods of time out of the public eye as he stuck to his Klondike riding.

The results were as mixed as the campaigning. The Liberals wound up with eight seats, as did the Yukon Party.

That left Kate White and her two NDP MLAs holding the balance of power. The end result of that was the establishment of a Confidence and Supply Motion between the Liberals and the NDP.

In exchange for voting for the Liberals on confidence motions, the NDP would be given policy concessions in many areas, such as rent control, a safe consumption site and a new dental insurance program set for 2022.

It’s an uneasy alliance even now, in December, with sniping from both sides and what are being called “growing pains.”

It remains to be seen if the agreement will last for another year, when it’s due to expire.

3. The summer saw the largest flood mitigation effort Yukon history has ever seen.

After a 2020-21winter that created a record snowpack in the southern Yukon, a sudden burst of hot weather in June set the stage for unprecedented flooding.

The situation prompted a state of emergency declaration on July 9. Scores of thousands of sandbags were filled and positioned around many properties near the Southern Lakes and Lake Laberge, and the Canadian military was called in to help.

Longtime area residents Andrea and Florian Lemphers were finally able to return to their Shallow Bay property this past Wednesday, more than five months after being forced to flee from the rising waters. (See a more detailed look at this year’s flood scenario in today’s local news section.

4. “It is both heartbreaking and staggering that as of Nov. 26, Yukon Coroner’s Service confirms 21 lost lives due to toxic illicit drug use since Jan. 1 of this year (with more currently under investigation),” chief coroner Heather Jones told Yukoners in November.

All of these deaths involved opioids in various formats of fentanyl, and a large percentage involved cocaine.

The Yukon, like most other Canadian jurisdictions, Jones said, “has suffered greatly under the strain of what has been deemed ‘the opioid crisis’, which found its way to us in the spring of 2016.

“Since that time, and to date, 54 individuals in the Yukon have lost their lives to the illicit use of opioids. Eighty-five per cent of those total deaths have involved fentanyl.

“A further 10 individuals have died as the result of non-opioid drug overdoses during that time-period. The Yukon has lost 64 lives to drug overdoses since spring 2016.”

See a more detailed report of this subject in today’s local news section.

5. A decision the Yukon government made in 2019 stormed back to present it with major public relations and political problems in 2021.

After an eductional assistant at Hidden Valley Public School was charged with sexual interference in 2019, the Department of Education prepared advisories to distribute to parents of the school’s students. They were never sent.

The accused later served a jail sentence. A furore ensued after these events were publicized this year, and four investigations into the government’s actions and non-actions have ensued. See a more detailed summary of events in today’s local news section.

6. The federal election proved a strange one.

Long-time Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, who’d had the nomination for several months, suddenly announced his retirement just as the election was being called for late September.

In a move that startled the public, Bagnell was replaced in less than a week by Brendan Hanley, the Yukon’s longtime chief medical officer of health.

Hanley never offered a concrete explanation for his sudden change of career, and took a leave of absence from his position with public health until after the election.

In the meantime, the federal Conservatives in the Yukon came close to self-destructing as the national leadership dismissed second-time candidate Jonas Smith over his views on vaccine mandates and passports.

That led to a fracture within the party locally, as Smith chose to run as an independent candidate. The Conservatives fielded Barbara Dunlop, a former government employee and successful romance writer, as their replacement candidate.

The subsequent vote split between Smith and Dunlop made it easier for Hanley to win by more than 1,000 votes.

7. Then-city councillor Laura Cabott never looked back in her bid to become mayor of Whitehorse in the Oct. 21 municipal elections.

From the earliest returns until the end of the night, Cabott never surrendered the lead as the poll stations began to report.

She won every district with the exception of one, Whitehorse North, won by challenger and district resident Samson Hartland.

Cabott also faced down Patti Balsillie in the latter’s first bid for a place in city government.

Cabott received 2,897 votes, or 43 per cent of the votes. Balsillie finished with 1,942 votes, or 29 per cent of the votes.

Hartland, coming off two consecutive terms as a councillor, finished with 1,898 votes, or 28.2 per cent of the votes cast, just 50 back of Balsillie.

Voters, Cabott said, were looking for strong leadership.

Two newcomers to municipal politics topped the charts in the race for the six councillor positions.

Mellisa Murray finished on top with 3,011 votes while Michelle Friesen placed second out of the 17 candidates for councillor with 2,612 votes.

Incumbents Dan Boyd and Jocelyn Curteanu finished third and fourth in the council race with 2,563 and 2,395 votes respectively.

Former city councillor Doug Graham came in seventh, just 21 votes behind Cameron.

Eligible voters number 19,479, of whom 31 per cent cast ballots. The turnout was well below the three previous elections.

The turnout in 2018 was at 37 per cent of eligible voters compared to 36 per cent in 2015 and a whopping 43 per cent in 2012, the first year former Dan Curtis was elected to the first of his three consecutive terms.

Curtis did not seek re-election in October, suggesting it was time for new leadership and ideas.

Curtis said his most cherished accomplishment over his nine years as mayor was the relationship the city built with the Kwanlin Dun First Nation and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Council of Lake Laberge.

8. Faro was engulfed in grief after the fatal shootings of two local residents on Oct. 26.

The RCMP arrested 61-year-old Ralph Bernard Shaw and charged him with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Shaw remains incarcerated in Whitehorse.

The victims were Patrick McCracken, a 73-year-old former town councillor, and 42-year-old Saenduean Honchaiyaphum, the accused’s former partner. A third Faro resident was shot but survived.

Hundreds of Faroites attended a last-minute vigil the following day that was organized by friends of the deceased. A second vigil was held the next day.

The shootings were described as deeply tragic by many, including Silver and Faro Mayor Jack Bowers.

The premier called the shootings absolutely devastating for the small Yukon community, and for the territory as a whole.

RCMP Chief Supt. Scott Sheppard held a press conference to explain what the police know about how the shootings unfolded.

Police received the first calls of shots fired at 1:02 p.m., and a community alert was issued. Officers attended the scene and found a critically injured man, and an RCMP emergency response team was dispatched to the community.

During their response to another report of shots fired at 1:56 p.m., police arrested Shaw without incident. But their wellness check of another nearby residence results in a deceased man being found.

The community alert was rescinded at 3 p.m.

“No community, nor matter how large or small, nobody ever wants to endure this type of event,” said Sheppard.

A team of social workers, counsellors, mental health nurses, EMS staff and peer support workers was dispatched to Faro to assist the community with the emotional fallout from the tragedy.

Condolences were sent to Faro from communities across the territory.

9. In January, in a somewhat unbelievable turn of events resembling a Keystone Kops script, Rod Baker and his wife, Ekaterina, from British Columbia, were charged with a caper that could have been a movie of the week.

National media sources have reported that Baker subsequently resigned his post as the president of Great Canadian Gaming, as well as his position on the board of directors of the company, which operates casinos.

The couple arrived in Whitehorse during the third week of January, according to then-Community Services minister John Streicker.

“We’re not certain how they arrived here,” he told the Star.

Upon their arrival, the couple filled out a self-declaration form, including an isolation plan that involved staying at a local hotel, Streicker said.

They then chartered a private plane to take them to Beaver Creek.

Once there, the couple attended one of the mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinics being operated by a team from the Department of Health and Social Services.

They presented health cards, one from Ontario and one from British Columbia, and claimed to be working at a local motel, Streicker said.

They received their vaccinations and left the clinic. No one was particularly suspicious until the couple was heard asking if anyone could give them a ride to the airport.

Someone then contacted the motel – and found out the couple wasn’t working there, and no one had any idea of who they were, Streicker explained.

The charter plane had taken off by this point, but CEMA officials were able to track it back to Whitehorse.

The couple was nowhere to be found when the plane was located at Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport, Streicker said.

Officials then tried to trace them to the hotel in which they were supposed to be self-isolating.

The couple continued to be a step ahead of the authorities at this point. They had already checked out – leaving the enforcement team with no obvious clues.

However, the team returned to the airport to check out passengers on commercial flights. Enforcement officers quickly sighted the man and woman waiting to board a flight, and charged them.

Appearing in a Whitehorse court by video, the Bakers eventually pleaded guilty to two counts each of breaching public safety measures. They were both fined $500 on each count, amounting to total fines of $1,150 each when the $75 court surcharge is added on.

They also pleaded guilty to failing to self-isolate and breaching the declaration they’d made, upon arriving in Whitehorse by air, that they would self-isolate in a local hotel room.

10. The price of housing in Whitehorse just kept climbing, and it was no different in the third quarter of this year.

The average price for a single-detached house hit a record high of $656,800 in the summer. The new record was $87,800 or 15.4 per cent higher than third- quarter sales in 2020.

The average price for a duplex – one side – reached a new record of $511,500 while the price of mobile homes averaged $405,100, also a record. Condos sold for an average of $456,300.

The total value of real estate transactions in the summer hit a record $149 million, or $26 million more compared to the same period last year.