Ione Christensen waits outside the Senate Chambers to be sworn in as senator in Ottawa, 1999.

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

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