Ione (Cameron) Christensen

Ione was born in 1933 at Dawson Creek, BC, and her family moved to Fort Selkirk in 1935 where she spent her childhood. Her mother, Martha, was a lay nurse and her father, G.I. Cameron, was the corporal for the RCMP at the Fort. Ione went to a boarding school on Vancouver Island to Grade 8 and completed high school in Whitehorse. During her school days she was very involved in sports where she excelled. The family moved to Whitehorse in 1949 and Ione later went to California and completed a two-year business administration course. Upon returning to Whitehorse she started working at the Taylor & Drury Store. It was here that she met her future husband, Art Christensen. They were married in 1958 and built the house in Riverdale where they still live today. They have two sons, Paul and Phillip, and one grandson, Harrison.

In 1960, Ione started working for the Yukon government in various jobs in the Treasury Department. When her second child was born in 1967, she stopped work to be a stay-at-home mom until the boys started school. However, she did work part time as the woman Justice of the Peace and later as the first Yukon woman judge in the Juvenile Court. In 1975, Ione won the election as the first woman Mayor of Whitehorse in a landslide victory against seven male candidates.

She was re-elected in 1977 and, in 1978, was asked to accept the position of Commissioner. This was the year that there was a Territorial election held along party lines: Liberals, Conservations and NDP. The Conservatives, under the leadership of Chris Pierson, were elected as the Government. This created a major problem. Under the Yukon Act, the Commissioner was the Chief Administrator for the Yukon, but now there was a Premier! Ione was sworn into office in January of 1979; then in the spring there was a Federal election and the Conservatives under Joe Clark, with Erik Nielson as Deputy PM, took over. To say being the Commissioner was difficult would be an understatement. Ione tried to make things work but it soon became apparent that was not to be. In October, she resigned after receiving new terms of reference with no changes to the Yukon Act to make them compatible.

For the first time in 1980 she became involved in partisan politics and ran federally for the Liberals, losing by 101 votes. Ione emerged from these political experiences strong and moved on to various executive positions in companies that included Hospitality North, Ltd., Petro-Canada and Panarctic Oil, Ltd. At the same time, she contributed to various federal and territorial government reports on subjects such as mining and waste management. Ione continued to work for her community and in 1999 was appointed to the Senate. Ione resigned early from the Senate to be at home with Art, who was losing his sight and needed more help.

Both Ione and her father are members of the Order of Canada. She is one of the most recognizable public figures in the Yukon. She shares her family’s famous Klondike Era sourdough starter (still kept alive) that was handed down from her grandfather, Dave Ballentine, who brought it into the Yukon during the Gold Rush. Ione took the starter back to the Chilkoot Trail in 1998 for two months. She and two friends ran a Cook Tent at Bennett serving Sourdough hot cakes to all of the hikers of the trail that year. Ione has hiked the Chilkoot Trail twenty-one times.

Like her mother, Martha (Ballentine) Cameron, Ione could never say no to a challenge. As a result, she accumulated a list of “Firsts for Yukon Women” during her working life. Ione has continued to serve her community, the Yukon, and Canada in so many ways.