The Queen will have a new representative in Canada next month to replace the outgoing Adrienne Clarkson. She is Michaëlle Jean, a Haitian-born journalist familiar to Québec television viewers. She is being touted as the first black to fill the governor general's post, the third woman, and the second non-Canadian-born since 1952. Before that year governors general were always sent from Britain, appointed from the aristocracy or even the royal family. The one exception was Scottish novelist John Buchan, known during his tenure in Canada as Lord Tweedsmuir. In 1952 Vincent Massey became the first Canadian-born governor general. Since then the office has alternated between an anglophone and a francophone. However, with Mme. Jean's appointment, we will have had two CBC/SRC journalists in a row, which some might deem a minor breach of convention. At age 48 Mme. Jean will become one of the youngest persons to represent Her Majesty in the True North.
RDI
Michaëlle Jean
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