Ione Christensen, famed for Yukon politics, century-old sourdough starter, dies at 91

Senator in waiting Ione Christensen waits outside the Senate Chambers to be sworn-in as senator, during a private ceremony in the Senate in Ottawa on Sept. 7, 1999. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

A powerhouse politician who broke glass ceilings in Canada, Ione Christensen is being remember both for the trails she blazed and the international acclaim she earned for the century-old sourdough starter she protected in the back of her refrigerator.

A former senator and the first woman to be mayor of Whitehorse, Christensen died Monday at the age of 91.

A statement from Whitehorse Mayor Kirk Cameron said Christensen beat out seven men in the 1975 election and would go on to be appointed the first female commissioner of the Yukon in 1979 and the first female senator from the territory in 1999.

A fourth-generation Yukoner, Christensen was born in Dawson Creek, B.C., and moved to Whitehorse as a teenager.

NDP Leader Kate White said Tuesday that when she was growing up in the Yukon, Christensen was always a figure in the community.

“The reality is, it’s people like Ione who redefined what women could do in politics,” White said.

“She lived her life on her terms and she did really incredible things. I was lucky to grow up in a place where those trails had been blazed. It wasn’t unexpected for women to enter those arenas because of women like Ione who had come before.”

Christensen was the also the first woman in the Yukon named a justice of the peace and the first woman appointed a judge in the juvenile court.

Yukon Party Opposition MLA Geraldine Van Bibber said Tuesday that Christensen was a calm presence in the territory, always willing to offer advice.

“She was just living her ordinary life, and thought, ‘well, I’m just going to do this. I’ve got this idea and I’m going to try it,’” Van Bibber said

“If she was challenged, I think it made it more interesting for Ione. She was an amazing pioneer that just blazed trails and made things happen.”

Outside of the political arena, Christensen was likely most well known for what lived in a plastic container in the back of her fridge in Whitehorse, carefully labelled to avoid accidental disposal.

Fermenting in the tub was Yukon history in the form of sourdough starter, a living mixture containing a culture of yeast and bacteria used to leaven bread and other baked goods, that had travelled with Christensen’s great-grandfather into the territory during the gold rush.

“She was very proud that this thing has been in her family for so many years,” Yukon chef Cat McInroy said.

By feeding the concoction a unique diet of flour, water, and a pinch of sugar, the starter would grow and could be shared with other would-be bakers and continue to multiply.

And share the starter is exactly what Christensen did.

McInroy was entrusted by Christensen to care for her starter as of 2017, and said she heard stories of then-senator Christensen using the concoction to make pancakes for constituents.

McInroy said she has mailed the starter to people in all seven continents, with the blessing of Christensen. It has gone to a research vessel to Antarctica, to Guam, to Australia and all across Europe.

Christensen told a New York Times reporter in 2020 that the starter was a “a family pet, if you will.”

It was passed down from her great-grandfather, Wesley David Ballentine, who, the story goes, stowed the starter in a flour sack and trekked over the Chilkoot Pass in 1897 on his way to the Klondike gold fields.

McInroy said neither her nor Christensen have ever been interested in making money off the starter, despite sometimes getting offers to monetize it. That’s not the culture sourdough is meant for, McInroy said.

“This is the Yukon sourdough. It belongs to no one and to everyone,” she said.

Yukon Premier Mike Pemberton said in a statement that Christensen paved the way for generations of leaders to follow.

He called the starter, which has been kept alive through generations and is now preserved in the International Sourdough Library in Belgium, “a fitting symbol of her enduring legacy.”

“Over her long life, Ione broke barriers in politics, law and public service. She opened doors, inspired countless Yukoners and showed the power of kindness, hard work and courage. The Yukon is stronger because of her,” he said.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press