Monday, September 06, 2010

Happy Birthday Your Excellency

Not only wasn't the Queen's current representative in Canada born in Canada, she wasn't even born in the Commonwealth, but rather in Haiti on this day in 1957; all of which makes her, if anything, the ideal viceroy for an increasingly cosmopolitan country.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketA popular and respected journalist, Her Excellency's appointment was not without controversy. Since contempt for Canada and Canadian institutions is de rigeur in Quebec, few public officials there did more than sniff at the appointment, even though she's lived there for nearly 40 years. In the rest of the country the usual rumbles were heard, and more than one pundit cited that then-Prime Minister Paul Martin's dwindling mandate didn't really qualify him to replace outgoing Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, whose term had already been extended once.

Not even this blog has been spared; in a previous post published April 23rd, 2007 - concerning the Governor-General's widely reported battle with fatigue - commenter David Wozney said, among other things: 'It is a fiction that a corporation is a person.' Okay...

Her Excellency's term, as these things will, is soon scheduled to come to an end; it remains to be seen if the white man appointed to replace her* will adhere to the academic credentials he earned at the helms of the Universities of Waterloo and McGill or simply devolve into yet another neoconservative lackey...

*David Lloyd Johnston, a Mulroney-era hack appointed by the utterly horrific Prime Minister Stephen Harper...
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

She certainly is charming, and seems to be an effective goodwill ambassador.

One small thing: her role is defined as "the Queen's representative in Canada" correct? So her job is to represent the Queen to the people of Canada, not to represent Canada to the people of the world.

Do I have that right?

michael sean morris said...

I guess it's most easily explained this way:

She IS the Queen's representative in Canada but she DOES represent Canada wherever she goes.

For closer definitions of IS and DOES ask Bill Clinton.

TheQuestionMan said...

She certainly dresses like a European Royal.

Hard on the budget don't yah know.

QM

michael sean morris said...

She does get a clothing allowance; then again she's representing us, so I don't like the idea of her showing up in sweat pants or anything from "Winners".