No more celebrities at rideau Hall
canada sometimes seems like a country doomed never to learn even the most blindingly obvious lessons. And judging by some current commentary, the shuttle-crash tenure of Gov. Gen. Julie Payette might go down as yet another missed opportunity.
“There is no better time than now for Canada to have its first Indigenous governor general,” the Hamilton Spectator argued in a Friday editorial.
“The prime minister is looking at nothing less than a golden opportunity to remake an institution rooted in Canada’s colonial past into something more meaningful for, and reflective of, the nation of today,” the Spec opined.
“I think it is time that Canada has its first Indigenous governor general,” outgoing national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Perry Bellegarde told Canadian Press. “I’ve always said that we need to get First Nations people into the highest levels of decision-making authority, power and influence, and the governor general, to me, is one of the highest.”
Good grief, no. No, no, no, no, no.
Fact: Governor general is not one of Canada’s highest positions of decision-making authority, power and influence. Except in very rare and fraught circumstances, it isn’t a position of decision-making authority or power at all. People with the ability to “influence” positive social change would be much better off doing almost anything else.
This is a feature, not a bug. The greatest strength of a well-run constitutional monarchy — which certainly describes Canada’s under Elizabeth II’S peerless stewardship — is precisely that it walls off fundamental matters of state in a zone of apolitical dignity. you don’t have to like the monarch, or her representative. But you should at least appreciate that their caprices do not alter the ship of state’s course.
The only actual job a Canadian viceregal has is to represent the head of state on Canadian soil, at the federal or provincial legislature in question. The head of state is Elizabeth II, who has no public opinions about religion versus science, women in the STEM professions, head injuries in professional sport or anything else our last two governors general have weighed in on. The pay is good and the perks are considerable at rideau Hall, but this should be seen as just recompense for smart, accomplished, dedicated people keeping their mouths shut and doing what their learned advisers tell them.
By and large, the provinces are pretty good at appointing dutiful people to fill the role. The only lieutenant governor I can name off the top of my head is Ontario’s
Elizabeth dowdeswell, because I have covered Queen’s Park in person. She seems to really love her job, which is to say showing up and saying pleasantly uncontroversial things at cabinet swearings-in, portrait unveilings and other events, and hosting receptions afterward in her quarters.
I am sure she has opinions about things. Born in Belfast, raised in rural Saskatchewan, she has led an accomplished life as a deputy minister in both regina and Ottawa, and as executive director of the un Environment Programme, and as a professor at the university of Toronto. Maybe I could find some of those opinions if I went looking for them.
But as it stands I have absolutely no idea what those opinions are, and I don’t particularly care, and that’s exactly as it should be. The federal viceregal will always be higher profile by default, but the same principle should hold: Anyone who desperately wants the job shouldn’t get it. Anyone who deserves the job probably isn’t on any normal person’s radar. By rights, the next governor general should be someone almost no one has ever heard of.
The idea of appointing an Indigenous governor general, specifically and on principle, was reportedly in the process of being achieved when Trudeau’s gang came up with Payette and figured they couldn’t possibly lose. Clearly no vetting of any consequence was done: her reputation as a boss and co-worker from hell long predated her installation at rideau Hall.
If Trudeau and his braintrust have learned anything from their violent collisions with reality over the last few years, they ought to be terrified of the very prospect. Canada’s first performatively feminist prime minister eventually felt it necessary to fire Canada’s first Indigenous female justice minister, Jody Wilson raybould, then kick her out of caucus, for the crime of not wanting to interfere in an independent criminal prosecution. He found it necessary to do the same to Jane Philpott, arguably his most competent minister, about whom no one has a bad word to say, for the crime of standing by Wilson raybould.
In the offing he offered Wilson raybould the Indigenous Services portfolio, which would have involved administering the Indian Act, which she had on-record called “not a suitable system of government” and “not consistent with the rights enshrined in our Constitution.” Even offering the job to an Indigenous Canadian would be widely perceived as a “shocking ask,” Tanya Talaga argued in The Globe and Mail this week, for much the same reason.
For a prime minister who has almost literally nothing of note to offer except symbolic gestures, Trudeau is absolutely terrible at pulling off symbolic gestures. For the love of all that’s good and holy, sir, please just appoint an earnest, well-meaning, unambitious human being to the job. The nation will thank you.