By Colin Alexander ——Bio and Archives--February 13, 2023
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It would be absurd to expect Governor General Mary Simon to punch a time clock to justify her position and her salary of 340 grand, raised by 40K during Covid. And a pension of 150 grand. But since her office costs taxpayers $34 million annually, and with it costing a hundred grand for meals on a five-day trip, let’s look at what’s going on.
It’s reasonable to consider whether Mary Simon is upholding the implied duties of trust and performance that come with the job and the paycheck. So what do they consist of? The Governor General should focus on the motto for the position. It translates as wanting a better country. Granted the job description is an open exercise book, that doesn’t mean the pages can remain blank.
Considering that the Governor General’s King Charles’s representative in Canada, my question then follows: What do the royal family and the monarch do that their representative in Canada should also do here? There is, of course, a short list of symbolic functions like reading the Throne Speech, receiving ambassadors and attending the Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11. Beyond that, I submit that a reasonable template would be what Princess Anne does. Setting aside, her tremendous achievements as an equestrian, for weeks on end she attends two or three official functions daily, delivering encouragement or sympathy, as the occasion warrants.
Most important is the energy Princess Anne brings to more than 300 charities for which she’s patron, many of which she works for actively. Her attention focuses on sport and sciences, people with disabilities, and health in developing countries. For more than half a century, she’s been associated with Save the Children. Based in the UK, it’s an international organization aiming to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. She founded The Princess Royal's Trust for Carers (now Carers Trust), which supports millions of individuals caring those who can’t help themselves.
I submit that the Governor General should serve as a symbol of patriotism on a twofold front—delivering encouragement to achievers, and compassion and support to those facing challenges. Clearly, the Governor General should not get involved in politics. But Mary Simon could bring people together for good causes. She could also quietly persuade governments simply by being visible around unfilled needs and then passing on privately the useful suggestions coming from what she sees.
Constitutionally, King Charles is the (symbolic) commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. So, in effect, that means the Governor General. So how much interaction has that position been involving? And what about wounded, homeless and destitute veterans? I took someone to a food bank in walking distance from Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s residence. While waiting, I got talking with a disabled veteran of the Afghan war who said he was there because he didn’t have enough money to buy food.
And what about helping the Indigenous, Mary Simon’s personal constituency? I found out there was a class being offered at the Wabano Centre, also walking distance from Rideau Hall. They’d brought in instructors from Winnipeg to conduct a three-week course in making Indian handicrafts. When I tried to enroll two Ojibwa grandmothers who really need help in finding useful activity, I was told enrollment was full. And the course was a one-off. Why can’t Mary Simon take the initiative in getting programs like that to happen on an ongoing basis?
My problem is that identity politics enables many like Mary Simon to fill figurehead jobs, erroneously called executive, that require no real work. There’s always backup doing any actual work. Mary Simon has no management capacity for getting useful work done. I don’t think she even writes her own speeches. What about saving Indigenous children in violence-wracked remote settlements and urban slums? In two consecutive years she delivered speeches to Inuit conferences (no longer on the Internet) that were essentially identical. She said there needed to be radical improvement in the delivery of education to Inuit children immediately—not next week, next month or next year but starting right now. Of course, verbiage without an implementation plan dissipates long before the next blizzard.
I’m reminded of what a friend of mine, Peter Irniq, told me about being Commissioner of Nunavut—paycheck about 150 grand. With appropriate self-deprecation he said, “It’s wonderful being a professional Eskimo [in his own words!].”
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Colin Alexander was publisher of the Yellowknife News of the North. His forthcoming book, to be published soon by Frontier Centre for Public Policy, is Justice on Trial: Truckers Freedom Convoy and other problematic cases.
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Colin Alexander was publisher of the Yellowknife News of the North. His forthcoming book, to be published soon by Frontier Centre for Public Policy, is Justice on Trial: Truckers Freedom Convoy and other problematic cases.