Quebecers split on Mary Simon as choice for Governor General
While most Canadians approve of the choice of Mary Simon as Governor General, her nomination has left Quebecers divided and is unsupported by a narrow majority of francophones, a new survey suggests.
The online poll of 1,521 Canadian respondents, conducted by Léger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies, found that while naming Simon as the country’s first Indigenous Governor General was supported by 76 per cent of respondents nationwide, that approval was less widespread in Quebec, where the former ambassador garnered 54 per cent approval as the country’s viceregal representative.
Respondents who identified as francophones were even cooler to Simon’s nomination, with 52 per cent saying they did not approve.
Simon, an Inuk woman from northern Quebec, has had a long career as a diplomat and activist, is an officer of the Order of Canada and Ordre national du Québec and has 11 honorary doctorates. Her nomination caused controversy because she does not speak French well.
Simon has said a federal school she attended as a child prevented her from learning French, and she has promised to improve her language skills.
The online survey, conducted from July 16 to 18, cannot be assigned a margin of error, but a probability survey sampling of this size in a poll is considered to have a margin of error of 2.52 per cent 19 times out of 20.
The poll was conducted just before the office of Canada’s commissioner of official languages announced it had received over 400 complaints regarding Simon’s lack of French skills and would launch an investigation into the process that led to her nomination.