The model of a modern governor-general

Wanted: right person to fill high-profile position: house/extras package

Essential/desirable: outstanding interpersonal skills and the ability to get along well with people from all walks of life and a willingness to get involved in the community. The successful appointee will have an outgoing personality, be a skilled reader, have a quick wit, and be adept at ad-libbing. The ability to get along well with the whole team is essential.

Those with diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Startling similarities exist between the job specs for the Australian governor-general and those for top-flight TV journalists and program hosts. Much of the job description is similar, too … although naturally TV personalities are not called upon to be Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force or the ultimate defender of the rights of the people.

So far the nation’s media princesses have chosen the party political channel for their post-camera years. But is there a different and stratospheric career option for such poised, pretty and powerful personalities? That plum job at the very top of the tree - national Master/Mistress of Ceremonies (or governor-general) - could be the ultimate aspiration for TV hosts and news anchors. They could have it all, along with national name and face recognition. Crucially, like the classic black business suit, they project the style of substance. Is it possible that for the job of G-G, style is as important as substance itself?

Australia’s typical, traditional governor-general is a retired High Court judge or a military officer such as the current distinguished incumbent, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC.

But in another Commonwealth country - one where republicanism is not quite such a charged topic - the last two appointments, Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean, have both been accomplished high-profile female journalists of diverse background.

Canada seems to have decided the role of on-site royal needs a sparkle of glamour: a people’s prince, or preferably, princess. No need for a legally astute judge or strategically-inclined military officer in the constitutional “umpire” job.

Perhaps the reasoning is that takes talent and experience to handle high-level schmoosing. An intelligent generalist like a journalist should be able to manage heavy duty constitutional issues - but not every judge is a gifted mingler. So, to find the next governor-general, look no further than across the room: that talking head who graces the large big screens in everyone’s family room - the television news anchor, interviewer or host.

This same talent pool also offers plenty of scope for ticking the gender, cultural diversity and youth boxes, which would satisfy the popular call for governors-general to be “representative”. As a bonus, television personalities have had their private lives pre-scrutinised as part of the high-visibility aspect of their job, and already swim happily in the media fishbowl.

Canada’s current home-grown royal stand-in is actually a Haitian import. Michaëlle Jean arrived in Canada with her family as an 11-year-old. An award-winning broadcaster and TV host, she was appointed in 2005 by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Paul Martin, the then Prime Minister (a small-l Liberal). Canada now has a Conservative government headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Jean is not only the third woman, but also one of the youngest Canadian G-Gs, and the first black person to hold the keys to Rideau Hall. French-speaking and from the province of Quebec, Jean became known to English-Canadians (or Anglophones, as they are known) as host of documentary programs on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Newsworld, an English language cable television specialty news channel.

Columnist John Ibbitson, writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail on the day of Jean’s investiture, conveyed a certain dizzy, head-over-heels mood toward the new G-G.

[H]ere is this beautiful young Canadian of Haitian birth, with a smile that makes you catch your breath, with a bemused older husband by her side, and a daughter who literally personifies our future, and you look at them and you think: Yes, this is our great achievement, this is the Canada that Canada wants to be, this is the Canada that will ultimately make way for different cultural identities.

As befits a media professional, Jean has taken the Rideau Hall website into new territory. She has a blog - bloGG - and an online chat line at www.citizenvoices.gg.ca intended to be a national forum on topics including “Youth Empowerment”, “Violence against women - it’s everyone’s problem” and “New technologies and culture”. And on the companion “Rideau Hall” blog, His Excellency reveals his impression of daily life at home and on the road.

The other famous talking head who became Canadian figurehead was Jean’s immediate predecessor, Adrienne Clarkson. The daughter of William Poy, an Australian-Chinese businessman, she was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Canada with her family in 1942. When she became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992, Clarkson’s official citation described her as:

… one of our best-known media personalities [who] has hosted more than three thousand five hundred television programs in one of the most respected careers in Canadian broadcasting history.

Between 1965 and 1982 Clarkson worked with CBC Television, as host, writer and producer. Her arts show, Adrienne Clarkson Presents, never got high ratings - but raked in the awards.

Clarkson was Rideau Hall’s chatelaine for six years after being sworn in by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1999.

Known for her incisiveness, charm and poise, Clarkson was viewed as the near-perfect solution to the “need to put a modern spin on a job that many Canadians view as an anachronism - and required a fast learner for a role that is clearly in transition,” according to a Chretien insider quoted in Maclean's magazine in 1999.

The insider itemised Clarkson’s attributes saying; “She is a visible minority and a woman and she did a diplomatic stint in Paris. She is held in high regard by the arts and academic communities. There is no taint of political affiliation. She carries herself with dignity.”

Clarkson was the first Canadian governor-general without a political or military background. Although controversial for her spending and constitutional positions, at the end of her term she was praised as a moderniser of the role of governor-general who lifted the public visibility of the office. She was a perfect fit, as is Michaëlle Jean, for three of the Canadian governor-general’s stated roles: representing Canadians and promoting sovereignty; celebrating excellence; and bringing Canadians together. But the constitutional responsibilities of the office include profound matters such as making sure the country always has a prime minister, for example. Quite how this modernisation relates to the fourth role, representing the Crown in Canada (as laid out in the Constitution Act, 1867), is never quite clear.

According to Don DeBats, professor of politics at Flinders University, there is a debate as to whether governor-general is a serious job - or not.

If you think it is - remembering the constitutional crisis in 1975 here, and that of Canada in 1982 - you need a serious person; if it is just a feel-good position then you go the Canadian route for a person representative of a nation's aspiration to niceness. And in the end you rather guarantee that it is not a serious position by putting a non-serious occupant there. That’s one way of solving a great constitutional problem, but perhaps not the best.

Memories of Australia’s 1975 crisis, when the figurehead took independent action, make the search for governor-general always somewhat fraught. So the question is: would Australia be wiser to stick with the tried and true formula - politician, judge, or military chief? Or has Canada hit upon the very model of a modern governor-general, one that Australia should emulate?