Prime Minister Mark Carney will announce the identity of Canada’s next governor general on Tuesday, Global News has learned.
Carney, on Monday, was travelling back to Ottawa from the Armenian capital of Yerevan where he had participated in the 8th European Political Community summit.
Neither he nor his senior aides were available to comment while they were in transit but his public itinerary for Tuesday indicates that, on Tuesday morning, he will be in Ottawa to “announce a new appointment.”
The current governor general, Mary Simon, an Inuk woman born in northern Québec, was the first Indigenous Canadian to hold the office.
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While Simon spoke Inuktitut and English, her appointment was controversial because she did not speak both of Canada’s official languages, English and French.
Simon, like every Canadian-born governor general in Canada’s history, was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II.
Her successor, the 31st Governor General of Canada, will be the first who will be appointed by King Charles III and first appointed on Carney’s recommendation.
Simon, who is 78, has indicated through her husband, that she is ready to retire.
Governors general do not serve for a defined term though most serve for about five years. Simon’s predecessor, Julie Payette, served less than three-and-a-half years while Payette’s predecessor, David Johnston, served for seven years and a day.
In Canada’s system of government, the governor general performs mostly a ceremonial role, acting as the commander-in-chief of Canada’s armed forces and the representative in Canada of Canada’s head of state, currently King Charles III.
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