Payette launches her escape pod
Whatever warm glow the prime minister might have been feeling after he was named the proud first recipient of a foreign-leader call from the Biden White house probably went up in smoke on thursday afternoon when word emerged that Julie payette, famed astronaut and Governor General, was resigning.
and not just to spend more time with her model of the solar system: payette and her longtime friend and secretary, assunta di lorenzo, are stepping down after an external report into allegations of a toxic workplace environment at rideau hall was completed. We don’t know yet what the report says, but those who’ve seen it say it’s damning. payette activating her launch escape jets seems to lend credence to those reports.
payette’s crashing back to earth — that’s not actually intended as a space pun, though it works as one — has been a bizarre spectacle to watch. she was a surprise choice for the governor general job after david Johnston ended his extended term in late 2017. there had been speculation that Justin trudeau wanted to appoint an indigenous person, as a tangible sign of his commitment to reconciliation, but when payette became a possibility, she was apparently too good to ignore.
you can see why. She’s a French-canadian woman who excels in the sciences and, as mentioned, she’s an astronaut, one of the most obscenely talented and tough people in the world. It’s hard to think of a more demanding, specialized job, and she wore our flag to space twice, on separate shuttle missions. What’s not to like?
Her conduct, apparently. Some of the allegations that have been published about Payette’s time in office have been, in a word, bizarre.
resentful of the scrutiny, she apparently tried to evade her security guards, causing them to assign additional manpower, at extra expense, so that they would not be outwitted by their charge. She spent heavily on renovations at the official residence, but did not want to live there. She reportedly chafed under the ceremonial demands of the position, which is an odd problem to have in a largely ceremonial position.
She kept a far lighter schedule than prior governors general, and her staff turned over at a rate that surprised experienced observers. Most critically, her management style, according to many sources who began speaking increasingly openly with the media, was brutally harsh and unpleasant. After these reports emerged, similar reports began to surface regarding her tenure as head of the Montreal Science Centre. Staff at both places had been reportedly left humiliated and in tears after outbursts by the boss.
The perfect GG for this particular prime minister therefore quickly became a particularly awkward one. It wasn’t that long ago, in that nearly forgotten era before COVID, that the PM himself was losing powerful women from his cabinet and his caucus over complaints of rough, hostile handling by Trudeau and his staff. Just as Trudeau began to move
beyond those scandals, Payette’s began to emerge. The Post reported in late 2018 that Payette’s vetting had been rushed and insufficient, but the prime minister stuck by his astronaut — one of his astronauts, there’s also Garneau — and said as recently as September of last year, describing her as “excellent” in a radio interview on Vancouver’s airwaves.
Again, the entire affair is bizarre. The independent report into rideau Hall’s workplace environment has not yet been released, and may not be — the government may choose to release a summary instead. The overall political damage to the government will likely be minimal, simply due to the chronic civic illiteracy of Canadians, many of whom no doubt responded to the breaking news of Payette’s resignation as governor general by asking who Payette is and what’s a governor general. If the independent report, or a summary of it, is horrifically damning, loaded with juicy details, perhaps Trudeau will wear some of the stink of the whole affair.
Even if that’s so, there’s a hell of a lot happening out there right now, including the pandemic and the thus-far inadequate effort to get Canadians vaccinated. Plus, as always, the drama in the u.s. will no doubt keep many Canadian eyes locked in to the south, allowing for a bit of a dignified cleanup in Ottawa before anyone pays too much attention.
In any case, the prime minister is now set to get a do-over in his search for a governor general, barely three years into Payette’s term. Sticking with the astro theme, perhaps he’ll ask Chris Hadfield, who seems as competent as Payette, and a whole lot nicer. Barring that, perhaps President Biden can drop some names on the PM, in case they run out of other things to chat about on Friday.
as trudeau’s scandals receded, payette’s began to emerge.