It could have been worse. The Prime Minister might have appointed to Canada's highest office a citizen of another country , perhaps one who was hostile to Canada's continued existence and - what the hell, just for argument's sake - delighted in the company of terrorists.
But he didn't. True, the designate governor-general of Canada is a citizen of France - but also of Canada. Some of her friends say she's a separatist, but we don't actually know for sure. And it's her husband who numbers among his associates the men who kidnapped and garotted Pierre Laporte, not her. What a relief?
(link, hat-tip NealeNews)
When you add this up how can not ask, what questions did the PMO ask her when they vetted her? What background checks did they do to ensure that she was a committed Canadian? How could they do such a poor job of selecting a governor-general?
...The governor-general has not only the job of representing the Queen, but of us, and of those things on which our society depends: freedom, democracy, order. And, on occasion, he or she may be required to act in such a way as to preserve them, adjudicating among the parties contending for power and, in extremis, calling them to account for its abuse. In such crises, it is useful to be able to draw not only those reserves of popular respect that attach to the office, but also to the person.
It is not unreasonable, then, to expect whoever was selected would be conspicuous for those qualities he or she is supposed to inspire among others. He would not merely believe that public service was a good thing: he would be a shining example of it. She would not simply live in Canada, as a convenience: she would be devoted to it, as an ideal. We would not need to ask how he or she had voted in a referendum on Canada's very existence as a federation. The question would not even rise.
That is the thing about the unknown. It is hard to know what may pop up out of the great unknown to bite you where the sun don't shine. That is what due diligence is for. Or as Mr Coyne points the Prime Minister could have selected someone of known quality. If Jacques Parizeau was correct and the PQ lost the referendum due to "the ethnic vote" surely there would have been some high profile immigrant federalists. Had the Prime Minister selected so one well know from the federalist camp there would be none of this today. But nature abhors a vacuum and the media lives to fill in the details. The PMO should have known that this was the result of selecting somewhat out of the ether and shame on them for not being prepared for it.
