If I was the Governor-General of Canada, here’s what I’d do

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John Fraser’s new book, The Governors General: An Intimate History of Canada’s Highest Office, is published by Sutherland House. He is the founding president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.

Sooner, rather than later, Prime Minister Mark Carney is going to have come up with a great choice to recommend to King Charles as our next governor-general. As her husband Whit Fraser told The Globe and Mail last week, Mary Simon’s days are numbered.

“I’ll tell you that we’re looking for an apartment,” Mr. Fraser said to the Globe’s Ian Bailey.

It will be five years this summer since she was first sworn in and, good and decent soul that she is – and our first Indigenous governor-general – it’s time to move on and get some dynamism back into the oldest continuous office in the Canadian story. I’m here, front and centre, to help him. No thanks necessary.

First, I would like to remind him that, when faced with the same task, prime minister Stephen Harper created a committee to advise him, a committee that would first vet all reasonable candidates and then recommend five choices across a broad spectrum of achievements and skills. That’s how we got David Johnston, who was an admirable governor-general throughout his time in office.

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Naively, I suppose, I tried to sell one of Justin Trudeau’s most important advisers, Gerry Butts, on the Harper concept. Talk about a brush-off! “Yes,” Mr. Butts lectured me a decade or so ago, “Harper’s people are very proud of their system, but we think we can do better.” Better turned out to be Julie Payette.

“So,” I can almost hear Mr. Carney asking me, slightly irritated at the presumption since he probably had already made up his mind and consulted King Charles about it on March 16 when he visited Buckingham Palace: “Who do you think would make a good governor-general?”

This is so easy to answer. Me, of course, except for a few problems: apart from the fact that the love of my life would walk out the front door the moment I even hinted I was interested in the gig, at 81 I’m far too old. On top of that my French is pretty bad, I love gossip, I think secrets are for spies and people who like to feel important, and I suffer fools gladly because they are often such fun – and occasionally wise. But otherwise my heart and my brains are in the right place for the assignment, and it’s the brains and the hearts Mr. Carney should be on the lookout for.

Now, stick with me here in this self-regarding vein and let me rejig some things I wrote in a new book on Canada’s governors-general. If I was ever appointed governor-general of Canada, I would – hopefully – have immediately realized that the job was not about me, despite whatever it was that propelled me into consideration, despite how wonderful I thought I was, or how useful and appropriate or obvious someone else thought I might be. The job is actually about the country.

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I hope I would be savvy enough to look at the state of the nation at the very hour of my appointment, consider how we got to that point, and try to examine how on Earth I could be an agent of positive feelings about Canada, how I might try to heal current wounds and national altercations, and how I would try to reach out to those Canadians at both ends of the national equation. Reach out to those who had done so much to make Canada the amazing and unbelievably fortunate country it was, and equally reach out to those who have been abandoned or forgotten and left by the wayside, even in the most amazing and unbelievably fortunate country in the world.

I would also plan on having a damn good time and host lots of parties at Rideau Hall and look forward to bringing people together from all over the country, especially people who are always ready and eager to help the cause of making Canada even more amazing and even more fortunate.

That’s just for starters. I would use the platform and influence every governor-general is handed on a silver platter to make room for Indigenous conversations that go beyond tokenism, but be careful not to irritate Mr. Carney too much. I would try something quite challenging and explain to skeptical Canadians why the Crown is so important to our constitutional well-being, and to ponder one of the alternatives south of the border. If my proficiency in either official languages was rusty, I’d try hard to bring it to acceptable levels. I would identify with new Canadians and try to deploy their newness to inculcate renewed faith in born citizens. I would encourage forgiveness and positive outreach on all sides. I would remember that the young are, well, young, and need to have faith in the future.

The only innovation I would work hard to deploy – both subtly and overtly – is to change the status of the vice-regal partner, wife or husband, and make sure there was the same measure of partnership as there was in life. I remember very vividly Mr. Harper once telling me that the biggest problem he had with most of his vice-regal appointments was “spousal alienation.”

Finally, I would try hard to articulate national longing like Adrienne Clarkson did, to honour our armed forces and civilian guardians like Georges Vanier did, to be as sensible as David Johnston was, to be as imaginative as Vincent Massey was (when he wasn’t aping royalty) and as warm as Michaëlle Jean always was.

So there you are, Prime Minister: You’ve got the profile. As I said, no thanks necessary. Just get on with it.