Tim Cant is seeking the Liberal nomination for the Kluane riding, he announced this morning.

"After 23 years of living and working in that riding, I have a pretty firm grip of what the issues are, but I'll still have to go out there and knock on doors,” the 52-year-old Cant said in an interview.

He said the fact that he no longer lives in the riding will be an issue for some. But he expects the nine years he lived in Burwash Landing and the significant amount of time he still spends visiting and working in the riding will outweigh any negative effects.

"We get to the Kluane riding and every community on a regular basis,” Cant said of he and his wife, Mary Jane Jim, deputy chief of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN) and co-owner of the management and consulting business.

"People know us, and we have established personal and professional relationships.”

The longtime business consultant, negotiator, advisor and artist moved to Whitehorse in 1997. His Burwash home was destroyed by the forest fire that ravaged the community of 100-plus in the summer of 1999, though he still has his property there.

Kluane MLA Gary McRobb has held the riding since 1996, when he was twice elected as a New Democrat but defected to the Liberals in 2006. He announced last week he is not seeking re-election.

Cant is the only person so far to announce his desire for the Liberal nomination, for which no meeting date has been set.

Economic diversification and development, said Cant, are priorities for the constituents of Kluane.

The economy is, after all, the glue that holds communities together, that keeps the local store going and provides the base for employment to keep communities wholesome, he said.

"I've facilitated forestry workshops with CAFN, small businesses and community members, facilitated community visits for the Alaska Highway Aboriginal Pipeline Coalition (AHAPC) and facilitated meetings aimed at finding economic opportunities related to the spruce bark beetle,” he said

today in a prepared statement. "The common denominator is broadening our economic base.”

The artist, who's crafted sculptures in Burwash Landing and Beaver Creek, and is recognized for his work with snow sculptures, has also been vocal in the local campaign to create national support for new methods to treating multiple sclerosis.

Cant said his MS is not a factor, and shouldn't even be an issue, though he accepts it's a legitimate question given his profile fighting for recognition of the liberation therapy in the last couple of years.

"My health is great,” he said.

Cant said for the last 15 or 16 years he considered running in the Kluane riding, as people have asked him to, and he's been courted by all the parties.

He'd been asked to run in this election as well. When he heard McRobb was not seeking re-election, he decided it was a good time to enter politics, as he supports the Liberal approach, he said.

It's the party best positioned to balance the economic interests tied to the Kluane region's natural beauty and its vast inventory of beetle-killed spruce available for industrial opportunities, he said.

"We looked at our lives and the timing was right,” Cant said of the decision to seek the nomination. "I have the full support of my wife and children, and I have a good connection to the communities. It is a good time to enter politics.”

By Chuck Tobin

Star Reporter