Douglas George Phillips was appointed the 29th Commissioner of the Yukon at a ceremony on Parliament Hill today.

Phillips takes over responsibilities from outgoing Commissioner Geraldine Van Bibber, who served in the role since December 2005.

On the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Governor General David Johnston named Phillips the Yukon's official "head of state” this morning.

"Mr. Phillips brings a wealth of experience to this new position, having contributed to public and community service in Yukon for more than 30 years,” Harper said in a statement released at 3:32 p.m. Ottawa-time, or 12:32 p.m. Yukon time. 

First elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in 1985 under the Yukon Territorial Progressive Conservatives, Phillips served in a number of cabinet portfolios.

Those include Tourism, Education, Justice and as the minister responsible for the Women's Directorate and the Public Service Commission. 

He also served as Government House Leader from November 1992 to February 1996, under the Yukon Party and as official Opposition House Leader from December 1996 to April 2000. 

Serving as the Yukon administrator since 2007 (and reappointed in April of this year), Phillips was considered the commissioner-in-waiting.

In his free time, Phillips is involved in wildlife conservation and community service. He recently served as director of the Yukon Hospital Foundation, which he co-founded.

The Office of the Commissioner was established when Parliament passed the Yukon Act in 1898, which carved the Yukon Territory from the N.W.T.

Under this new legislation, hastened by the Gold Rush which began two years previous in the territory's now-fabled Klondike, a commissioner and legislative council of six governed the Yukon, all of whom were then appointed by the Canadian government.

The first wholly elected council occurred in 1909, but it would be 70 years until the powers of the commissioner were greatly reduced to that of a figurehead following the "Epp letter”, which urged then-Yukon commissioner Ione Christensen to cease participation on the affairs of the Territorial Executive Council.

Manitoba Conservative MP Jake Epp wrote the letter on the advice of then-Government Leader Chris Pearson, whose Yukon Territorial Progressive Conservatives captured the majority of seats in the territory's first election contested by three political parties in 1978.

Christensen resigned and specifics outlined in Epp's now-historic missive were adopted by subsequent commissioners and formally written into law with amendments to the Yukon Act in 2003.

Similar to the role of a provincial lieutenant governor, responsibilities of the Commissioner of the Yukon are both statutory and customary in nature, and include:

• ensuring continuity of government, particularly that the Yukon has a premier at all times;

• swearing in members of the legislative assembly;

• reading the Speech from the Throne at the opening of each legislative session;

• summon, prorogue and dissolve the legislature;

• provide assent to bills passed by the legislative assembly enabling them to become law;

• upon advice from cabinet, sign orders-in-council, Commissioner's warrants, statutory appointments and dispositions of Commissioner's lands; and

• represent the interests of the Yukon's residents by acting as a symbolic head of the territory.

Past Yukon Commissioners*

1897-1898: James Morrow Walsh

1898-1901: William Ogilvie

1901-1902: James Hamilton Ross

1902-1903: Zachary Taylor Wood

1903-1904: Frederick Tennyson Congdon

1905-1906: William Wallace Burns McInnes

1907-1911: Alexander Henderson

1912-1915: George Black

1916-1918: George Norris Williams

1918-1924: George P. MacKenzie

1925-1927: Percy Reid

1928-1932: George Ian MacLean

1932-1946: George A. Jeckell

1947-1950: John Edward Gibben

1950-1951: Andrew Harold Gibson

1951-1952: Frederick Fraser

1952-1955: Wilfred George Brown

1955-1962: Frederick Howard Collins

1962-1966: Gordon Robertson Cameron

1966-1976: James Smith

1976-1978: Dr. Arthur MacDonald Pearson

1978-1979: Frank Fingland

1979-1979: Ione Jean Christensen

1980-1986: Douglas Leslie Dewey Bell

1986-1995: John Kenneth McKinnon

1995-2000: Judy Gingell

2000-2005: Jack Cable

2005-2010: Geraldine Van Bibber

*History courtesy of the Commissioner of the Yukon website.