 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 ] Next Last |
On October 7, 1999 she was sworn in as the twenty-sixth Governor General of Canada, after being appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, Canada’s head of state, on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Clarkson is the first non-white Canadian Governor General, the second female, and the first without a military or political background.
As Governor General she acts as Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces on the Queen's behalf. In this capacity she visited the battle group aiding the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002.
Throughout the first few years of her term in office, Clarkson was praised as being a more modern Governor General and bringing more public attention to the office than in recent decades. Criticism soon ensued, however, regarding the way she and her office spent money. Under her tenure, the office's spending has increased almost 200%. The budget for 2003 was estimated to be at $41 million. Part of this increase was due to accounting reasons: several costs associated with the governor general that were formerly paid by various government ministries were transferred to the governor general's office, such as bodyguard services.
As well, in late 2003 she undertook a 19-day circumpolar "northern identity" tour to Russia, Finland, and Iceland, along with 50 other prominent Canadians which was seen as a waste of money by some of the Canadian public, particularly after a scandal involving George Radwanski now known as the sponsorship scandal; but her office defended the trip as successful, particularly with regard to her warm reception in Russia and her meeting with Vladimir Putin. The trip was commissioned and paid for by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; however, the general itinerary was under her office's control. A scheduled continuation of the circumpolar "northern identity" tour that would have included visits to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Greenland was scrapped by the Federal Government in early 2004. The increase in spending resulted in some politicians calling for the role of the Governor General to be reduced or even for the position to be eliminated. A poll taken late in 2003 found a majority of Canadians thought Clarkson was "too grand" for the office.
In 2004, Clarkson and her office were once again in hot water; this time with Canadian monarchists. During a ceremony to recognize Canada's involvement at Juno Beach in the D-Day landings of 1944, Clarkson's office claimed that she was attending as Canada's Head of State, when in fact the Queen, who was in attendace at the ceremony, is Canada's Head of State and should have been treated as the senior official in attendance. Rideau Hall later retracted the statement saying that it was an error of a junior official.
During a visit to Vancouver in September 2004, Clarkson was booed and hissed at by a small, though very vocal, group of protestors. She was on a goodwill tour of a poor area of the city; however, the protestors argued that her visit was nothing more than a publicity stunt to try and gain some of her lost popular support to get her term extended.
Despite the criticism, Ms. Clarkson and her husband have travelled across Canada to meet the people more than any other Governor General in Canadian history. She has been to Kosovo to meet the troops, spent Christmas with the troops in the Persian Gulf on a Canadian destroyer and, most recently, announced that she would be spending New Year's with Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Ms. Clarkson also writes her own speeches. Clarkson's tenure has been notable for her patronage of the arts.
She is married to Canadian author and philosopher John Ralston Saul, with whom she has lived since 1984 and married in 1999. Adrienne Clarkson is also the sister-in-law of Vivienne Poy.
While some Chinese Canadians feel pride in Clarkson's literary and political achievement, other Chinese Canadians point out that Clarkson has never made much of an effort to embrace her Chinese heritage. For example, although her parents are fluent in Chinese, Clarkson is not. Some thus find Clarkson to be without regard for her Chinese ancestry, and believe she has not been very representative of her minority group while in office.
Clarkson has been asked, and agreed, to remain in office for at least another year in order to promote stability as the country faces the potential constitutional difficulties of a minority government; other past Governors General have had their terms extended in such circumstances, such as Roland Michener and Georges Vanier. This decision however, has been met with mixed feelings across the country.(The Globe and Mail)
| Preceded by: Roméo LeBlanc | Governor General of Canada 1999— | Followed by: — |
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|