At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner's Office 1998-2010.

• Author: Levy, Gary
• Position: Book review

At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner's Office 1998-2010, by Linda Johnson, The Legislative Assembly of Yukon, 2012

One of Canada's smallest jurisdictions, Yukon is also one of the most active in the promotion of its legislative history which, like the Territory itself, has been long and colourful. Linda Johnson was Yukon Archivist for 20 years, and later College Archivist at Yukon College. She is author of With the People Who Live Here: The History of the Yukon Legislature, 1909-1961, published in 2009.

This book is about the men and women who have held office as Yukon Commissioner since 1898. As present Commissioner Doug Phillips notes "The term Commissioner could refer to anything from a guard at the Parliament Building to the head of the RCMP to any number of positions in between." (p. 315). The Office has evolved over the years and is now similar to the office of Lieutenant Governor in a province.

The first part of the book consists of a series of mini biographies of 15 Commissioners from 1898 to 1962. Many were closely aligned with the Liberal or Conservative Party, depending on who was in office in Ottawa. Most were transplants from the southern provinces but all fell under the "Spell of the Yukon". A few went on to federal politics like George Black (1912-1918) who later served as a member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons in the 1930s. James Ross (1901-1902) became an MP and then a Senator. In the process of learning about their lives the reader becomes familiar with all the great themes of Yukon history from the Gold Rush to mining to pipelines to aboriginal land claims.

The second part of the book focuses on the men and women who served as Commissioner since 1962. They are a more diverse lot including the first woman, Ione Christensen, and the first Aboriginal, Judy Gingrell. At the time this book was started, all the Commissioners appointed since 1962 were still alive and nine of them were interviewed. The biographies are edited extracts from these interviews. These oral histories are refreshingly frank as many Commissioners do not...