Ione Jean Christensen

Ione Jean Christensen is a former Canadian senator, the first woman named Justice of the Peace for the Government of Yukon and the first woman appointed Judge of the Juvenile Court, Commissioner of Marriages and Clerk of the Small Debts Court for the Government of Yukon. She was also the first woman elected Mayor of Whitehorse and the first woman appointed Commissioner of Yukon. A fourth generation Yukoner, Christensen was born in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and moved to Whitehorse as a teenager. She completed a business degree in California, married soon after her return, and launched her distinguished career with the Government of Yukon in the early 1970s. Christensen has received many awards, including the Order of Canada in 1994. She was appointed to the Senate in 1999 and served until 2006.