Gordon Robertson Cameron (1921 - 2010)
	
Gordon Cameron was born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. He had a life-long interest in aviation. He moved to Whitehorse in 1941 to work as an aircraft apprentice engineer for the British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN) air service.((“Gordon Robertson Cameron,” Yukon Government, //Commissioner of Yukon// 2018 website: http://www.commissioner.gov.yk.ca/about/Gordon_Robertson_Cameron.html)) In the days before the Alaska Highway, airplanes were a vital lifeline to the northern communities and Cameron flew into Mayo, Dawson, Fort Selkirk, McQuesten, and all over the Yukon.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 69.))
	
BYN sold their air service to Grant McConachie who merged it with his Yukon Southern Air Transport. BYN had more work than they could handle with the few aircraft and pilots they could hire during the war years. Cameron’s apprenticeship was transferred to the bigger company with scheduled flights from Edmonton and Calgary to Whitehorse and Dawson. Gordon Cameron and Willa Yvonne “Bonnie” Hunter met in Edmonton. They were married in 1944 and settled in the Yukon at Whitehorse. Yukon Southern grew into Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA) and Cameron’s job was again transferred but he wanted to fight in the Second World War. Cameron, Lloyd Ryder, and George Cooper signed up in Vancouver and Ryder was sent overseas. Cameron was kept in Ontario as a motorcycle dispatch rider and machine gun instructor. In 1945, Cameron took industrial leave and went back to work for CPA in Edmonton before moving back to the Yukon in 1946, with his wife and first child. The Whitehorse CPA office was now a satellite to the Vancouver head office.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 71-73.)) 
	
When ex-CPA pilot George Milne started a flying school, Gordon Cameron did the maintenance on his airplane. When Milne got a second plane there was more work and, about 1948, CPA told him to decide who he was working for. Cameron chose Milne’s Whitehorse Flying Service. Milne made him a partner and taught him how to fly. He could not get a commercial license because he was colour blind, but he was a back-up pilot on the third plane when pilots Milne and Bud Harbottle were on other flights. Whitehorse Flying Service amalgamated with Yukon Airways in 1949 and now the partners included Bud Harbottle, Clyde Wann, Harry Gordon-Cooper, Ronnie Greenslade and Norm Hartnell. Mining exploration was booming but government contracts brought in more money. There was a topographical survey project north of Mayo, and the company was thinking of adding a helicopter in 1954 when George Milne was killed in one of the Beavers. The partners sold the company to Pacific Western Airlines and Cameron stayed on to run the Whitehorse operation up to about 1957.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 74-76.))
	
When Cameron’s parents moved to Whitehorse, they started Camson (Cameron and Son) Marine Supply on Main Street. They also opened a Volkswagen agency in Whitehorse that was more successful. Around 1957 Cameron became a travelling salesman for a Whitehorse branch of Northern Metallic Sales. His heart remained in aviation, and in 1958 he started Glacier Aircraft Repair and Overhaul. By this time his engineer’s license was the highest available in Canada. Insurance companies in Vancouver and Edmonton would hire him to repair planes crashed in the bush and fly them out if possible. About that time Pat Callison was being pressured to move his helicopter business out of downtown Dawson, so he bought Cameron’s operation so he could relocate into Cameron’s shop in the Whitehorse “A” Hanger. Cameron became the operations manager and helicopter maintenance engineer and went to the United States to upgrade his license.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 74-76.))
	
Cameron served two terms as a Whitehorse alderman.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 77.)) He became the mayor of Whitehorse in 1959, the second person to hold this position. He was a founding member of the Midnight Sun Pipe Band in Whitehorse. He was appointed Commissioner of the Yukon and held the position between May 1962 and November 1966.((“Gordon Robertson Cameron,” Yukon Government, //Commissioner of Yukon// 2018 website: http://www.commissioner.gov.yk.ca/about/Gordon_Robertson_Cameron.html)) 
All of the previous Commissioners had been bureaucrats from Ottawa so this was a huge change in policy.((Linda Johnson, //At the Heart of Gold: The Yukon Commissioner’s Office 1898-2010.// Legislative Assembly of the Yukon, 2012: 79.)) After Cameron’s term as Commissioner, he became president of Canadian Coachways in Edmonton.((“Gordon Robertson Cameron,” Yukon Government, //Commissioner of Yukon// 2018 website: http://www.commissioner.gov.yk.ca/about/Gordon_Robertson_Cameron.html))