OTTAWA— Julie Payette (age 53), Canada’s second woman in space, will be Canada’s next governor general, the CBC has reported.
An engineer born in Montreal, Payette was selected as a Canadian astronaut in June 1992, going on to make two space shuttle flights and becoming the first Canadian on the International Space Station. Sources say Trudeau informed the Queen during an audience with her last week of his recommendation to the post. Current Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s term is set to expire in September, after Stephen Harper extended it by two years ahead of the 2015 federal election. The identity of his replacement has been a closely guarded secret. Payette would become the 29th person to hold the position. An engineer born in Montreal, Payette was selected as a Canadian astronaut in June 1992, going on to make two space shuttle flights and becoming the first Canadian on the International Space Station. Payette hung up her flight suit in 2013 to become chief operating officer of the Montreal Science Centre as well as vice-president of the Canada Lands Company. Traditionally, the viceregal job rotates between anglophones and francophones, with all indications pointing to a francophone filling the portfolio beginning this fall. Johnston, who had a long career in academia, was chosen for the position off a short list presented to Harper by an ad hoc committee of experts struck with the express task of selecting a non-partisan person with constitutional knowledge. At the time, Harper had a minority government and so who held the post of governor general was essential to maintaining the stability of government. The names of those on the selection committee weren’t published until after Johnston’s nomination, but Harper would go on to make the committee a permanent body, saying a process to ensure a non-partisan approach to appointments was important. When asked late last year how he’d pick the next governor general, Trudeau was noncommittal about what process he would use. “I’m not going to change things just to reinvent the wheel,” Trudeau said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press. “If there is a good process that we can improve by making (it) more open and transparent and more diverse, that I will probably do.” Johnston is currently on a visit to China, and is expected to have an audience with the Queen next week when he travels to the U.K. for Canada 150 events, likely marking the last time he will sit face-to-face with the monarch he represents. In his farewell speech on Canada Day, Johnston said he has learned much in his seven years on the job. “These are challenging but exciting times,” he said. “And together we can show the world what a great country looks like. To me it looks like Canada, a country that strives, always, to be smarter and more caring — to do better, together.” With files from The Canadian Press ---end-- --- Albert Peres Project Manager, Goa Culture List [email protected] 416.660.0847 www.goaculturelist.ca
