Payette aims high as Governor General
Sworn in Monday in Ottawa, she urges fellow Canadians to believe in power of dreams
OTTAWA— Upon becoming Canada’s 29th Governor General, Julie Payette made an impassioned appeal for Canadians to tackle “serious and pressing global issues like climate change, migration, nuclear proliferation, poverty and population growth.”
Striding across the front of the Senate’s red-carpeted chamber, wearing awireless mic, Payette spoke to more than 400 invited guests and dignitaries, delivering a notes-free and, at times, quirky address that echoed many of the Liberal government’s favourite themes.
She hailed “diversity” as Canada’s strength, the value of science and evidence-based decision making and the need to reconcile with Indigenous peoples who she said were the original pioneers and “showed us the way.”
“It is a good thing we finally decided to listen again to their wisdom,” 53-year-old Payette said.
Twice in the 21-minute speech, the Governor General addressed Algon- quin elder Claudette Commanda along with other Indigenous leaders at her installation, in Algonquin.
“I would like to salute members of Indigenous nations present here and all of those who are listening,” she said, according to a translation provided by Rideau Hall.
“We have to achieve reconciliation for the well-being of our communities and for our children.”
Payette thanked her parents seated in the room for giving her “the greatest gift, unconditional love.” They backed her every step of the way to becoming an astronaut, she said.
Among the guests who spilled into a building across the street, Payette said there were many eminent scientists, aviators and “high flyers,” and “they would tell you we are all inextricably bound by a part of the same space-time continuum,” she said. “We’re all on-board the same planetary spaceship, but together we can move mountains.”
Above all, Payette said, she values “teamwork, the power of dreams and absolute necessity of a support structure,” adding this is “exactly what” she’d use her mandate as Governor General to reflect. The second Canadian woman to go into space and the first Canadian to work aboard the International Space Station, Payette spoke of her journey to the viceregal office as an unlikely one.
She said she wasn’t expecting the prime minister’s call to become Governor General, and her 14-year-old son, Laurier, gave her “permission” to accept the appointment.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hailed her hard work, discipline and “most importantly, your passion,” said she was a natural for the job.
She was, Trudeau observed, a pilot, athlete, polyglot, musician, astronaut and a mother, who showed “the sky was not in fact the limit.”
“Whether as Canada’s chief astronaut or as an Olympic flag bearer you represent the very best of what it means to be Canadian, to serve Canada with aplomb and integrity.”
Hours before, Payette’s story was told in a newly unveiled coat of arms that portrays ambition, whimsy and a musical flair.
Canada’s heraldic authority designed the crest to capture what it saw as the essence of Payette; an engineer, former astronaut, mother and Baroque music lover.
Flanked by two standing Canada lynx atop a blue borderless planet, the badge depicts an open wing, next to a crown, topped by an astronaut’s helmet, a musical bar and the motto “Per Aspera Ad Astra,” which means “Through hardship to the stars.”
It’s a motto used by Payette and fellow astronauts, according the Canada Heraldry Office, which researched Payette’s background and drew on it for inspiration.
Payette replaces David Johnston, 76, who was appointed by former prime minister Stephen Harper.