Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that in the coming days the government will release the selection process for the new governor general. Here is my recommendation for a streamlined but thorough process.
- Pick up the phone and call Queen Elizabeth II.
- Ask her how she is doing and politely inquire about the Duke’s health.
- Ask her who she wants to be governor-general.
- Once the conversation is over, conduct the most thorough background check this country has ever seen.
- If the candidate passes the initial background check, ask them for about one hundred letters of recommendation from previous employers, co-workers, and subordinates.
- If they still look like a good candidate, report back to the Queen and her advisors with the results so she can make the final call.
- Repeat this process as many times as necessary until someone is selected.
- Once the new GG has been selected, make the results of the background check public, or at least release a summary. Or bury it so deep at LAC that ATIP will never find it.
That’s all. Note that the PM has no role in this process. He may be the highest-ranking elected official in the country, but I find it weird that he gets to choose his boss’s proxy.
Ian Weatherall 