Jean Named Viceroy

Not knowing much about her, Michaelle Jean seems a good appointment as Governor General. I like the idea of appointing professional communicators—journalists. It matches the requirements of the post, and is a better idea than appointing retired politicians.

But let’s hear no more about “visible minorities” having a rough time of it in Canada. They are lionized in this country, and have been for as long as I have been around. Thanks to our colonial past and our colonial self-definition, we usually value what or whom has recently arrived from overseas more than the native article.

The “visible minority” population of Canada is now 13%--up from 7% in the last twenty years or so. Counting from Vincent Massey—the first Canadian to hold the post—we have had ten Canadian governors general so far. Two—20%--have now been “visible minorities.” That’s an overrepresentation, not an underrepresentation. Being a visible minority is, in Canada, a good career move.

It is the invisible minorities that lose out. By contrast, with something like 25% of the Canadian population, there has been no Governor General of Irish ancestry. No Italian, either, though there are twice as many ethnic Italians as Chinese. Haitian-Canadians, by contrast, are now doing unusually well in proportion to their numbers.

In a way, the last two governors general have been a return to an older tradition—when all Canadian governors general were foreign-born.

Welcome to the colonies.