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He's already got the wave down (Image: Marabuchi)
“I’ll take Entertainers turned Politicians for $200, Alex.”
“This beloved Canadian game show host may vie for the position of governor general in about five years.”
“Who is, uh, you, Mr. Trebek?”
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Move over, Drake. There’s a new guy about to steal the gangsta spotlight in Canada, and he just happens to be our new governor general-in-waiting, David Johnston. Currently president of the University of Waterloo, Johnston declared last week that he’d be taking over from Michaëlle Jean, but we’re more excited to discover, via the National Post, this rap video where the in-coming GG makes a cameo appearance. Produced by Waterloo students, the video, which is a shout-out to the university’s debauchery and intellectual prowess, went viral around campus in 2008. We recommend that Waterloo forget high school recruitment visits, and just send around this video to attract applicants next year.
• Canada, your new Governor General is a rapper [National Post]
David Johnston: an old, white, straight man becomes Canada's Governor General (Image: Mohammad Jangda)
Well, our Governor General Guessing Game is over.
Shortly after his breakfast and, we presume, morning software update, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named Canada’s next Governor General. Sixty-nine-year-old legal scholar David Johnston, most recently the president of the University of Waterloo, will be the nation’s next representative of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Johnston is a departure from the previous two vice-regents in that he has neither a uterus nor a staff key card to the CBC headquarters. He is instead a legal scholar with a long pedigree, having studied at Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Queen’s.
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Through most of Canadian history, the Governor General has basically been a non-entity. That’s changed with the last two GGs, thanks to a series of minority governments and constitutional brinksmanship. So it’s no surprise that Stephen Harper is taking the search for Michäelle Jean’s replacement seriously. What is surprising is that so is the small coterie of ardent Canadian monarchists. Conservative sources say Ray Novak, the prime minister’s principal secretary, and Kevin MacLeod, Canadian secretary to the Queen, have been involved in the search. They say both men are strong supporters of Canada’s links to the monarchy. “Only a few people in government care about it, but they care about it fiercely,” one source told the CP.
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GG Night in Canada (Image: CBC)
This summer, Canadians won’t be able to swing a cat without hitting a potential nominee for governor general. With the departure of Michaëlle Jean coming at the end of September, attention has already been paid to Don Cherry, Rick Hansen and, of course, William Shatner (who said he’d be happy to do it if it were a part-time gig). The latest prominent name to be floated is Ron MacLean, for his rescue of a man from the Delaware River. But does he stand a chance?
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William Shatner (Image: Anton Raath)
The Toronto Star devotes precious front-page inches to the kind of story that Canadians most yearn for: Will a Canadian-born celebrity please come home and make us all feel special? Where have you gone, William Shatner? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you: “Almost 12,000 people have signed on as fans on the [Facebook] page launched March 22 urging Capt. James T. Kirk to beam into Rideau Hall once Michaëlle Jean stands down.”
The Star is quick to point out that Shatner isn’t interested in the gig. Sure, they get a decent house and can decide the fate of a nation, but governors general spend a lot of time in front of a camera wearing odd costumes, so we can understand why this might be unappealing to William Shatner.
But before he or anyone else dismisses the idea completely, we offer six key attributes that would make a Shatner governorship a success.
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