Douglas Leslie Dewey Bell (1926 - 2021)

Doug Bell was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force when he was the minimum age in 1942 and did basic training in Edmonton and Winnipeg where he became a wireless air gunner. He was discharged in 1945.¹⁾ He took vocational training after the war and graduated as a radio operator. He and Pearl L. Gray were married in 1946.²⁾ Bell accepted a job with the Department of Transport (DOT) in Edmonton. After training he was posted to a bush camp and airport called Beatton River, British Columbia. It was seventy-five miles off the Alaska Highway, between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, and was on the Northwest Staging Route, the chain of airports that paralleled the highway. Bell was transferred to Fort Nelson in 1950, and to Lethbridge three years later. In 1957 Doug became the Officer-In-Charge at Watson Lake. A group of people formed Yukon’s first Community Development Association, and the Commissioner called to say thanks, ask permission to send the bylaws to other communities as an example, and invite three of them to Whitehorse to meet Commissioner Collins. In the third year at Watson Lake, Bell got a promotion to Medicine Hat.³⁾

In 1968, DOT decentralized, and Bell won the Yukon position with a staff of fifty-one telecommunication personnel, thirty-five air navigation and telecommunication sites, and electronic support for other branches of the government.⁴⁾ He was the Telecommunications Area Manager stationed at Whitehorse from 1968 to 1977.⁵⁾ His area included Watson Lake, Teslin, Whitehorse, Burwash, Dawson, and Mayo in the Yukon, and Smith River in British Columbia. The Bells lived in DOT housing at Valleyview in Whitehorse. After a few years, the houses were sold to the public and the Bells moved to Riverdale. Doug Bell became the DOT representative and later chair of Commissioner Smith’s Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee.⁶⁾

Doug was elected to the Whitehorse City Council in 1976, winning his seat after a tie for last place and having his name pulled out of a hat. The Council was working on an official city plan. In 1977, DOT was considering recentralizing and Bell was faced with moving to Edmonton, so he accepted when Art Pearson offered him the new position of Deputy Commissioner. The Executive Committee considered him electable because of his experience on the City Council. At the Ottawa briefing, he spent some time talking to Frank Fingland who became a valuable and knowledgeable friend in the right place. On the day that Bell was sworn in, the Deputy Head of Justice, Padraig O’Donoghue, lodged a complaint in the Yukon Supreme Court against lawyer Allen Lueck. When Bell understood the issues, he ordered O’Donoghue to withdraw the charges. The subsequent Stratton Inquiry brought trouble to Pearson and Bell, but the inquiry cleared them of any wrongdoing. Seven government departments reported to the Deputy Commissioner, and it took a year before Bell had shifted some of the workload to the elected members. Marion Morrow, Bell’s assistant, kept the flow of paper orderly and relevant.⁷⁾

Ione Christianson became Commissioner in early 1979 and the Epp letter followed in October. Bell became Administrator for fourteen months after Christianson’s resignation, and his first act was to swear in Yukon’s first wholly elected Yukon Executive Council. Bell was sworn in as Commissioner on December 31, 1980. His main roles in connection with the legislature were to present the Speech from the Throne and assent to legislation after it passed in the Assembly. Bell relied on Patrick Michael for his knowledge and experience. During his term, Bell organized the Commissioner’s Awards Committee and arranged for the Yukon and NWT Commissioners to attend Canada’s Lieutenant Governor’s conferences. He kept the Commissioner’s office independent of politics from the start to the end of his term.⁸⁾ He retired as Commissioner in March 1986.⁹⁾ He became a publisher for the Yukon News in 1986 and wrote a weekly column in the newspaper called “Rambling by Doug Bell.”¹⁰⁾ He chaired many committees including Yukon’s Emergency measures Organization, the federal Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee, the Northern Resources Conference, and the Hootalinqua Land Use Study. He ran a writing, photography, and public speaking business out of his home.¹¹⁾

Doug Bell was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1990 and he was one of ten inductees into the Order of Yukon on New Year’s Day in 2020.¹²⁾ His legacy lives in the work he did and the way he lived his life.¹³⁾ The Yukon Archives holds the Doug Bell fonds of his personal filing system during his term as Yukon Administrator and Commissioner.