Wow! Need some feel-good news? Okay — do you know what the Governor General of Canada does?
Easy-peasy. The Governor General is the Queen's official representative to the former dominion known as the True North. He or she presides over a bunch of stuff, like swearing-in of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, bill signings and what-not. Sure, it's ceremonial, but since in the bad old days it was always a white guy from Britain, Canada today is uniquely able to make an interesting statement with whomever the Prime Minister selects.
And it looks like tomorrow, Justin Trudeau will announce that the former astronaut Julie Payette will succeed the Canadian white guy Stephen Harper put in as G-G seven years ago.
Gosh, Julie Payette sure seems qualified. She speaks six languages. She's an electrical and computer engineer who served on the space shuttle Discovery in 1999 and docked with the International Space Station. And since she's from Montreal, you won't be surprised to learn that she took a signed Maurice Richard hockey sweater into space (he was "The Rocket," you know).
So — a strong, accomplished Canadian woman stepping into a position of prominence (and some power)? We'll take it, even though our favorite strong, accomplished American woman was cheated out of her own position of prominence (and great power) last year. Felicitations, Governor General Julie. We cats PURR.
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