Julie Payette becomes Canada’s 29th Governor General
Payette spoke to more than 400 invited guests and dignitaries in the senate’s red-carpeted chamber, delivering a notes-free and at times quirky address that echoed many of the Liberal government’s favourite themes.

TheStar.com
Oct. 2, 2017
Tonda Maccharles

Upon becoming Canada’s 29th Governor General, Julie Payette made an impassioned appeal for Canadians to tackle “serious and pressing global issues like climate change, migration, nuclear proliferation, poverty and population growth.”

Striding across the front of the Senate’s red-carpeted chamber, wearing a wireless mic, Payette spoke to more than 400 invited guests and dignitaries, delivering a notes-free and at times quirky address that echoed many of the Liberal government’s favourite themes.

She hailed “diversity” as Canada’s strength, the value of science and evidence-based decision making and the need to reconcile with Indigenous peoples who she said were the original pioneers and “showed us the way.”

“It is a good thing we finally decided to listen again to their wisdom,” said the 53-year-old Payette.

Twice in the 21-minute speech, the Governor General addressed Algonquin elder Claudette Commanda along with other Indigenous leaders at her installation, in Algonquin.

“I would like to salute members of Indigenous nations present here and all of those who are listening,” she said, according to a translation provided by Rideau Hall.

“We have to achieve reconciliation for the well-being of our communities and for our children.”

Payette thanked her parents seated in the room for giving her “the greatest gift, unconditional love.” They backed her every step of the way to becoming an astronaut, she said.

Among the guests who spilled into a building across the street, Payette said there were many eminent scientists, aviators and “high flyers,” and “they would tell you we are all inextricably bound by a part of the same space-time continuum,” she said. “We’re all on-board the same planetary spaceship, but together we can move mountains.”

“With our brains and our smarts and our altruistic capability we can do a lot of good . . . to diminish the gap and inequities that are found here and elsewhere.”

Above all, Payette said, she values “teamwork, the power of dreams and absolute necessity of a support structure,” adding this is “exactly what” she’d use her mandate as Governor General to reflect.

The second Canadian woman to go into space and the first Canadian to work aboard the International Space Station, Payette spoke of her journey to the vice-regal office as an unlikely one.

She said she wasn’t expecting the prime minister’s call to become Governor General, and her 14-year-old son, Laurier, gave her “permission” to accept the appointment.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hailed her hard work, discipline and “most importantly, your passion,” said she was a natural for the job.

She was, Trudeau observed, a pilot, athlete, polyglot, musician, astronaut, and a mother, who showed “the sky was not in fact the limit.”

“Whether as Canada’s chief astronaut or as an Olympic flag bearer you represent the very best of what it means to be Canadian, to serve Canada with aplomb and integrity.”

Hours before, Payette’s story was told in a newly unveiled coat of arms that portrays ambition, whimsy and a musical flair.

Canada’s heraldic authority designed the crest to capture what it saw as the essence of Payette.

Flanked by two standing Canada lynx atop a blue borderless planet, the badge depicts an open wing, next to a crown, topped by an astronaut’s helmet, a musical bar and the motto “Per Aspera Ad Astra,” which means “Through hardship to the stars.”

It’s a motto used by Payette and fellow astronauts, according the Canada Heraldry Office, which researched Payette’s background and drew on it for inspiration.

The two lynx collars of laurel, or bay leaves — “feuilles de laurier” in French — are a nod to her son, Laurier.

The open wing is meant to symbolize exploration and liberty and embody “our desire to reach higher and expand our horizons,” says the Canada Heraldry Office.

Payette approved the design created by Claire Boudreau, chief herald of Canada, who said she was inspired by a badge designed by a Quebec artist when Payette flew her first mission into space.

“I thought that this was very interesting that, already in her past, she had had the occasion to see herself in a design and to describe what is important to her,” Boudreau said in an interview posted by Rideau Hall on Monday.

The choice of lynx was Boudreau’s. She said the felines represent what she saw when she looked at photos of Payette interacting with people.

“The way she looks at people she has this strength and direct connection. The animal that came into my mind . . . was the Canadian lynx. For me this animal is a feline, but it has a way to look at its environment, but it’s discreet at the same time.”

Payette replaces David Johnston, 76, who was appointed by former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Johnston and his wife, Sharon, served in the governor general’s office for seven years, beyond the usual five-year term.

Payette arrived on Parliament Hill at mid-morning on Monday, the start of a day filled with pomp and ceremony.

She was greeted by Trudeau and Indigenous leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Métis National Council.

At the formal ceremony, she swore three oaths of office administered by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who holds the office of deputy governor general.

Payette selected the music for the program. A Tafelmusik baroque ensemble — Payette was once a member of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and choir — played Mozart’s “Divertimento.”

Payette chose Joannie Benoît and Mélissa Bédard, who first made their names during the 2012 season of Star Academy, to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

Payette invited Quebec’s Ginette Reno to sing the national anthem — a closing performance that Payette greeted with a standing ovation, along with the entire audience of Supreme Court judges, MPs, senators, former prime minister Jean Chrétien and Payette’s predecessors Johnston and Adrienne Clarkson.

A 21-gun salute fired by the 30th Field Regiment and a flypast by CF-18 jets marked Payette’s departure from the Parliament Hill ceremony, as she headed to the National War Memorial.

Onlookers in Monday’s festivities praised Johnston’s time as vice-regal representative and were curious to see what changes Payette will bring to the role.

Karen Doehn, who was visiting the nation’s capital from New Dundee, near Kitchener, said she was pleased another female was in the role.

“I think she’s with it, as far as society goes and she’s quite a bit younger so I think she’s at her prime,” said Doehn, at the war memorial.

“With every new person coming into the office, I think you’ve got to give them time to figure out who they are and see what they are capable of,” said Bethany Bisaillion, pipe major of the Sons of Scotland, an Ottawa-based civilian pipes and drums band.