Jack Cable

Ivan John Cable

Ivan John (Jack) Cable, lawyer, politician, Commissioner of the YUKON (b at Hamilton, Ont, 17 Aug 1934). Cable earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, a master's degree in Public Administration at MCMASTER UNIVERSITY and a law degree from the UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO.

He moved in 1970, joining the law firm of Neilsen, Hudson and Anton, whose partners included Erik Neilsen, the long-serving Progressive Conservative member of parliament for the Yukon and deputy prime minister. Cable later became a partner with the firm of Lueck, Pitzel and Cable.

Cable's political career began in the 1990s. In 1991 he served as president of the Yukon Energy Corporation, the public enterprise that is owned by the Yukon Government and that generates and distributes the bulk of the electrical energy used in the territory. He was also a director of the Northern Canada Power Commission. Cable was elected as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly in the general election of October 1992. He retained his seat in the Assembly until 2000, and did not seek re-election that year.

Cable has served his community in a variety of capacities. He has been president of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, director of the Yukon Science Institute, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army Adult Residential Centre. He also helped to found the Recycle Organics Together Society and the Boreal Alternate Energy Centre, a society that helped develop wind-powered electrical generation in the Yukon. He belongs to the Learning Disabilities Association of Yukon, the Association of Professional Engineers of the Yukon, and the Law Society of the Yukon.

In 2000 Cable was appointed 27th commissioner of the Yukon, serving from 1 October 2000 to 1 December 2005 when he was succeeded by Geraldine VAN BIBBER. The office of commissioner is very similar in its largely ceremonial function to that of the lieutenant-governor of a province.