They did it again. It is absolutely extraordinary. The Liberals have appointed another opinionated Type A personality from the most central realms of Central Canada as the next governor general, and it is Louise Arbour — former Supreme Court justice, International Criminal Court prosecutor and United Nations high commissioner for human rights.
This appointment is divisive from the get-go, which is the number one thing a governor general is not supposed to be. It is entirely possible she might be really good at it: stranger things have happened. But at 79 years of age, she is starting the job in a hole the government had no reason to dig.
Arbour's Controversial Past
Arbour’s controversies are mostly long in the past, at least: praising the Cuban tyrant Fidel Castro for his “unprecedented positive engagement with the UN human rights system”; praising communist China for its “commitment to the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” after Beijing donated not really very much money to her UN office; seeming to condemn Israel more than she has the various global actors who would prefer Israel be wiped off the map.
I am not going to dispute Arbour’s opinions here, because that really is not the point. She is entitled to those opinions, and it would be weird if someone as accomplished as her did not have them. But it is too many opinions on record for a governor general — or a monarch, for that matter, which is why King Charles’ pre-coronation nonsense about homeopathy, organic farming, “real ale” and the carnivorous ecstasy of mutton was so perniciously annoying.
The Unifying Role of the Governor General
Monarchy is hereditary, however. There is nothing you can really do but hope for the best. Rideau Hall is not hereditary. We can pick anyone we want. And we keep screwing it up. And by “we,” I mostly mean “the Liberals.”
I hope Arbour could be great at the job. No one thought Michaëlle Jean would be good at it when it turned out she was a Quebec separatist, then tried to deny it, and then it turned out FLQ terrorist Jacques Rose had built Jean’s husband Jean-Daniel Lafond a bookcase and … well, best not to dredge up old grievances.
The point is, Arbour does not tick the right boxes, which is more important than anything else in a figurehead position like GG, except for being a reasonably pleasant person who likes other people (the Liberals have not always gotten that part right either).
The Liberals know how to tick boxes better than almost anything else. It is so much easier than following through on anything. And yet, they keep buggering this office up.
The next governor general was always going to be francophone. After the Mary Simon debacle, that much, even the Liberals probably could not screw up … although North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson, soon to be Canada’s ambassador to the European Union, decided to say this crazy thing recently about Simon: “I know there were some controversies with respect to (Simon’s) French over the course of the past while, although I will say for (her) she spoke an Indigenous language, which I think is fair game in Canada.”
