Frank A. Campbell*

OTTAWA, Aug 12 2005 (IPS) — There were three words that spelled excitement in the recent appointment of Quebec broadcaster Michaëlle Jean to the largely ceremonial post of governor general of Canada. And these were words Prime Minister Paul Martin avoided in making the announcement: "historic", "separation" and "minority".

The first one signals that Jean, an award-winning broadcaster with the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), will become Canada’s first Black governor general. The second asks whether the appointment of this high-profile Quebecer to represent Queen Elizabeth II, Canada’s official Head of State, is intended to negate the recent resurgence in Quebecers’ desire to break away from the rest of Canada.

The third is the real hot potato. It has to do with the fact that Martin heads a weak minority government. So Jean can become one of the few governors general in the history of independent Commonwealth countries to dismiss the prime minister.

The three omissions were deliberate. Martin denied any ulterior political motive, and said that the occasion was one not for partisan politics but to celebrate an accomplished Canadian.

Calling Jean "one of Canada’s – and certainly one of Quebec’s – most admired broadcasters," he declared: "Hers is a story that reminds us what is best about ourselves and about Canada – a nation where equality of opportunity is our most defining characteristic, giving testament to our longest held values."

Jean, at 48 one of the youngest appointees to the position, came to Canada with her parents in 1968 as an 11-year-old exile from the feared regime of Haiti’s Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

She told the assembled media: "My ancestors were slaves. I was born in Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere. I am the daughter of exiles driven from their native land by a dictatorial regime."

In "Tropic North", a 1994 documentary by her husband, the equally accomplished French-born filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, she told how as a little girl walking along the train tracks to school, she feared the men who greeted her daily with racist taunts of a most degrading sort.

She could not hide her surprise at being asked to succeed outgoing governor general, Hong Kong-born Adrienne Clarkson, herself a CBC celebrity, and the first minority, first immigrant and second woman to hold the post. Jean noted that "I would never have believed that fate had such an honour in store for me."

The appointment of a Black person to the most senior, if not the most powerful, post surprised almost everyone. After all, Canada is a country where Black Cabinet members – or even top Black public servants or media personalities – are almost as rare as a warm winter’s day in Ottawa.

"Many of us," wrote Cecil Foster, Barbados-born journalist, author and professor in University of Guelph’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, "never thought we would see the day when the representative of the sovereign of this country would be a black-skinned woman, born in Haiti, of all places."

Foster, author of "Where Race Does Not Matter: The New Spirit of Modernity", hails the appointment as evidence of Canada’s transformation from its pre-1970 image as a "white man’s country" to its post-1970 embrace of multiculturalism as national policy.

The Calgary Herald acknowledged Jean’s "considerable accomplishments" and described her as "clearly smart, articulate and a professional". But the paper criticised her appointment in its editorial "Style but Wrong Substance: Journalism Poor Preparation for Constitutional Threat".

On the other hand, French-born novelist and Globe and Mail columnist Kate Taylor senses in Jean’s appointment "a breath of fresh air", and describes her as "a powerful symbol of the new Canada". She sees the appointment as Martin’s way of "addressing an increasingly embarrassing discrepancy in our political leadership."

Opposition Leader Stephen Harper expressed confidence that Jean "will serve Canada in a dignified, vice-regal fashion."

However, if she can make a difference in whether Quebec stays in Canada remains a subtext in the debate. The recent increase in disaffection among Quebecers evidences the failure of a plan by the governing Liberal Party to win Quebec’s undying love by sponsoring events in the province and literally flying the Canadian flag.

The plan backfired when Auditor General Sheila Fraser found millions of sponsorship dollars unaccounted for. Martin became head of the Liberal Party just in time to face an election that almost toppled him even before he could find his way to the prime minister’s office. But the electorate let him off with a slap on the wrist and a shaky minority government.

Many believe he had at least one eye on the ethnic vote when submitting Jean’s name to the Queen for formal approval. Many Blacks have been quietly unhappy with Martin for returning them, after a brief respite, to their usual unhappy state of not being represented by one of their own in the federal Cabinet.

While not having the clout that Blacks do in U.S. elections, their support could be crucial in tight constituencies in the vote-rich province of Ontario and in Quebec. After narrowly losing the 1995 sovereignty referendum, then Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau, in a telling acknowledgement of minority influence, blamed immigrants for allegedly voting against Quebec independence.

As embarrassing as Mr. Parizeau’s statement was for his party, it signaled, and Jean’s appointment reaffirmed, that Canada had entered a new and, for ethnic minorities, an exciting era.

Exciting, by the way, is a concept that did crop up in Martin’s statement. "As Madam Jean takes up her duties," he said, "I am convinced she will inspire and excite all Canadians, not just about our past and our traditions, but also about the future of our great nation."

The concept occurs in many other comments about this appointment. Jean herself used it in her prepared comments. And her predecessor described her as "an exciting and imaginative choice."

And there is, indeed, something exciting about a frightened Black 11-year-old girl growing from fear to fame and holding the destiny of her adopted country – even if only by means of symbol, ceremony and inspiration – in her hands.

*Frank A. Campbell, former Guyanese journalist, ambassador and cabinet minister, is an Ottawa-based communications consultant and writes regularly on politics, international development and the environment.