Andrew Harold Gibson (1883 – 1957)

Andrew Gibson was born in Lanark, Ontario.¹⁾ He served as a Northern Affairs officer in Ottawa and the NWT before he was appointed as Yukon Commissioner in August 1950. Northern administration was reorganized as the Department of Resources and Development in 1950, with Robert Winters as the minister. Winters visited Whitehorse and Dawson and recommended that the capitol be moved to Whitehorse against the fierce protests of the newly-elected Dawson municipal council. Dawson’s winter population was down to 500 people and Whitehorse had a year-round population of about 6,000. Mining, transportation, and service industries were headquartered in Whitehorse, and all of the federal departments with northern responsibilities already had officials posted there. Gibson announced the decision in 1951. Ottawa decided at the same time to increase the Yukon Council to five elected members. A federal official criticized the over-worked Gibson, Dawson residents were enraged, and there were negative comments from MP Aubrey Simmons, before Gibson retired in the summer of 1951.²⁾ In Gibson’s short term, government finances were insufficient and there was not enough communication between the Yukon and Ottawa. Frederick Fraser was sent in as the next commissioner to clean up the operation.³⁾

After Commissioner Gibson retired, he was appointed police magistrate and he and his wife Lena moved to Whitehorse. Lena left Whitehorse in 1956 to live in a nursing home in Vancouver and she is buried next to her husband in Whitehorse.⁴⁾