OTTAWA — Canada’s next governor general says he’s proud to have the opportunity to serve the country and its people, and pledged to be “a stalwart defender” of the country’s heritage.
“This major responsibility is a mark of confidence which touches me very deeply,” University of Waterloo president David Johnston said after the Queen and the prime minister announced his appointment.
“My wife and I have always believed that service — whether it is to family, community, university or country — is our highest calling.”
The bilingual academic starts his new job this fall, after Michaelle Jean’s term officially ends, Prime Minister Harper said in a statement.
“David Johnston represents the best of Canada,” Harper said. “He represents hard work, dedication, public service and humility.
“I am confident he will continue to embody these traits in his new role as the Crown’s representative in Canada.”
Johnston, 69, was selected by an advisory group of constitutional experts assembled by Harper in order to make the appointment less political, said PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
The small group consulted hundreds of people across Canada over several weeks, and Johnston’s name quickly floated to the top, Soudas said.
During a brief statement with his family at his side in the Senate foyer, Johnston said as an academic he’s witnessed Canadians’ “creativity and ingenuity, our strong ties to our communities and to the world, as well as our diversity and our vitality.”
“The opportunity to see these values at work across the country means a great deal to me.”
He called the office of the Governor General “an important institution.”
“As the representative of the Queen of Canada, who is our country’s head of state, I pledge to be a stalwart defender of our Canadian heritage, of Canadian institutions, and of the Canadian people.”
He said he particularly looks forward to meeting service men and women in his role as commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces.
After meeting with Harper, he spoke of Samuel de Champlain, whom he described as “a dreamer, a visionary.”
“This war-weary soldier had a dream, of humanity and peace in a world of cruelty and violence,” said Johnston.
“He envisioned a New World as a place where people of different cultures could live together in amity and concord. And this became his grand design — son reve — for North America.
“From Samuel de Champlain to Michaelle Jean, all our predecessors have set a fine example for us to follow. And so, I will be working hard in the next few months to prepare for my roles and responsibilities.”
Johnston shook hands with the Queen when she was in Toronto last week, but has not yet had a formal audience with her — even though the Queen visited Waterloo, and was well aware that Johnston was tapped to be her next representative in Canada.
Rather, the formal meeting will come this summer as Johnston prepares to take over from Jean.
The highly educated legal scholar was born in Sudbury, Ont., grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and served 15 years as principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University.
Johnston has studied at Harvard, Cambridge, and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
While at Harvard, Johnston was the captain of the hockey team, and also became friends with Erich Segal, who later went on to write the novel Love Story. A character in the book, the captain of the hockey team, is based on Johnston.
The academic and prolific author is widely respected and has had numerous interactions with government.
He wrote the terms of reference for the Oliphant inquiry which examined former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s business dealings with German-Canadian arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber.
He also hosted televised federal leadership debates, including the famous stand-off between Mulroney and then-prime minister John Turner in 1984.
Johnston became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1988, and was made a Companion in 1997.
He’s also described as an avid athlete and family man, with five daughters and seven grandchildren who call him “Grandpa Book” because of his reading habits.
As a student, Johnston was an excellent hockey player and was offered a chance to develop a career as a professional. But he chose to take an academic scholarship instead, picking school over sports, Soudas said.
His wife, Sharon, has a doctorate in rehabilitation science. She now runs a horse training centre from the couple’s home, Chatterbox Farm.
The Governor General is largely a ceremonial post, but Jean has had weighty decisions to make and an unusually high profile during an extended period of minority governments.
In December 2008, she allowed Harper to prorogue Parliament and buy time to thwart an attempt by the Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois opposition to form a coalition government.
While Johnston’s resume and intellect are sterling, whether he can match the charisma of the current governor general is an open question.