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3w ago

Ione Christensen, Barrier-Breaking Yukon Leader, Dies at 91

Territorial leaders hailed her record of firsts, with tributes highlighting the Klondike-era sourdough she preserved as a symbol of Yukon heritage.

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Ione Christensen, seen here in 2018, has died. She was a former commissioner and senator of the Yukon, the first woman to be mayor of Whitehorse, a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Yukon, and described by almost all who knew her as a 'trailblazer.'

Overview

  • Her death on Monday was confirmed by Yukon officials, including Whitehorse Mayor Kirk Cameron and Premier Mike Pemberton.
  • She became Whitehorse’s first woman mayor in 1975, was appointed Yukon’s first female commissioner in 1979, and later the territory’s first senator in 1999.
  • She was also the first woman in the Yukon named a justice of the peace and the first woman appointed a judge in the juvenile court.
  • A fourth-generation Yukoner, she was born in Dawson Creek, B.C., and moved to Whitehorse as a teenager before a decades-long career in public service.
  • She safeguarded a family sourdough starter dating to her great-grandfather’s Klondike trek, now archived in Belgium’s International Sourdough Library and, since 2017, cared for by chef Cat McInroy who has shared it worldwide, including to Antarctica.