Rylund Johnson is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician, who was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories (with Northwest hyphenated as North-West until 1906), is the legislature and the seat of government of Northwest Territories in Canada. It is a u ...

in the 2019 election. He represented the electoral district of

Yellowknife North Yellowknife North is a territorial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is one of seven districts that represent Yellowknife, the territorial capital. It encompasses Old Town, Niven Heights, s ...

Political positions

Johnson is a member of the federal

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

, describing himself as a part of the "millenial green wave addressing political apathy." He proposed that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation bring in revenue through

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...

, which would therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson is an advocate for drug decriminalization following similar actions in the city of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Johnson also supports a system of guaranteed basic income and advocated for the implementation of such a system with fellow Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly.

Personal life

Johnson worked as a lawyer and as a co-founder of Makerspace YK, a nonprofit. He was formerly an admin for the BDSM workshop group Northern Bound. Johnson was the target of parody in a YouTube video titled "The Greatest Speech Never Heard in the NWT Legislative Assembly," which was originally shared on the Dehcho First Nations Facebook page and subsequently acknowledged by him. When he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, he lived on a houseboat named the Scandimaniac, which also is the name of his podcast. Johnson moved to the Northwest Territories in 2015.

References

Living people People from Summerland, British Columbia Politicians from Yellowknife 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Year of birth missing (living people) {{NorthwestTerritories-politician-stub