Stuart Milton Hodgson
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Stuart Milton Hodgson (OC) (born 1924 April 1 in Vancouver, BC) was Commissioner of the Northwest Territories (NWT) from 1967 March 2 until 1979 April 6. The first Commissioner to actually reside in the Northwest Territories, he was a leader in the construction of a semiautonomous, responsible self-government run by residents of the territory.
Hodgson was also one of the founders of the Arctic Winter Games - which began in Yellowknife in 1970 for athletes from Alaska, Yukon, and the NWT – and which now also include Greenland, parts of Arctic Russia, as well as Northern Alberta and Northern Quebec, and the new territory Nunavut which was formed from NWT in 1999. When rapid changes in socio-economic conditions threatened the continuity of Inuit oral history, Commissioner Hodgson urged the taping of elders' stories. In 1974, the residents of Pangnirtung (since then becoming part of Nunavut) presented the Commissioner with eleven stories which were later compiled into a book.
Hodgson was nicknamed "Umingmak" by the Inuit. For his services in the NWT, he was presented the public service's Outstanding Achievement Award in 1976.
From 1979 to 1981 he was Canadian cochairman of the USA-Canadian International Joint Commission. He was recruited by Premier William R. Bennett of British Columbia to run BC Ferries for a time in the 1980s. He was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the BC Transit Corporation in 1985. Appointed a Citizenship Judge in British Columbia in December 1997, Judge Hodgson is an Officer of the Order of Canada, recipient of North Atlantic Star and of other Second World War medals. As of 2005, Hodgson continues in his position as a Citizenship Judge.
| Preceded by: Bent Gestur Sivertz | Commissioner of the Northwest Territories 1967-1979 | Succeeded by: John Havelock Parker |