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Canada’s Next Governor General? Here’s 11 Serious And Not So Serious Picks
Julie Payette is out as Canada’s Governor General.
Canada’s vice-regal representative of the British monarchy resigned this week following a scathing report into workplace harassment and bullying in her office. Payette’s departure leaves Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the key role of selecting a new person to put forward to Queen Elizabeth II for approval to fill the role.
The type of people selected to be governor general have varied throughout history. For a long time, the role was filled by members of the royal family. Throughout the back end of the 20th century, former Canadian politicians, officials or friends of the prime minister often got the nod. And in recent years it’s been filled by individuals looking to promote education or progress.
Trudeau says he’s already spoken to Queen Elizabeth II about Payette’s resignation and is considering who to nominate in her place.
The main role of the governor general is to provide a direct line between the Queen and the Canadian government. In the absence of the monarch, they do all their parliamentary duties, such as summoning parliament, dissolving it for elections or even proroguing it. They also give the official go-ahead — aka royal ascent — to federal bills. Ceremonially, they also host members of the royal family when they visit Canada, and are tasked with fostering “national unity and pride.”
So that’s all to say, it really could be anyone. And while there are some obvious politically sound picks we’ll get to, let’s use this opportunity to truly imagine a fun and iconically Candadian governor general.
With that in mind, here are 11 very serious (and not so serious) candidates for Canada’s governor general.
The national icon: Celine Dion
Who better to represent our country and act as our formal head of state than the icon herself? This week she demonstrated that she is adept at communicating important government messages in both English and France.
