Edward Schreyer - Governor General of Canada

Governor General of Canada

It was on December 28, 1978 announced from the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada that Queen Elizabeth II had, by commission under the royal sign-manual and Great Seal of Canada, approved Pierre Trudeau's choice of Schreyer to succeed Jules Léger as the Queen's representative. He was subsequently sworn-in during a ceremony in the Senate chamber on January 22, of the following year, making him the first ever governor general from Manitoba, and, at the age of 43, the third youngest ever appointed, after the Marquess of Lorne in 1878 (33 years old), and the Marquess of Lansdowne in 1883 (38 years old).

As governor general, Schreyer championed women's issues, the environment, and official bilingualism. During his first year in office, he established the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, recognizing the efforts of Emily Murphy and others to ensure that Canadian women would be constitutionally recognized as persons. He instituted the Governor General's Conservation Awards in 1981 and, in 1983, created the Edward Schreyer Fellowship in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. In the same year, he presided over the first Governor General's Canadian Study Conference (which has subsequently occurred every four years). Schreyer also carried out the usual duties of the viceroy, hosting members of the Royal Family, greeting foreign dignitaries, and presiding over award ceremonies and investitures. Notably, it was Schreyer who invested Terry Fox as a companion of the Order of Canada, travelling to Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, to personally present Fox with the order's insignia. In exercising his constitutional duties, however, he caused controversy when he hesitated to call an election after his prime minister— then Joe Clark— advised that he do so. Schreyer also later suggested that he might have dissolved parliament at any point through 1981 and 1982, had the Prime Minister— by then a returned Trudeau— tried to unilaterally impose his constitutional proposals.

Schreyer's "stiff, earnest public manner" worked against his wish to connect with people in a friendly way, and he was subsequenly a target for the media. The press generally applauded the announcement of Schreyer's successor, believing Sauvé's elegance and refined nature made her well suited for the role of the Queen's representative. In Maclean's, Carol Goar compared Sauvé to Schreyer's performance, stating that "she is expected to restore grace and refinement to Government House after five years of Edward Schreyer's earnest Prairie populism and lacklustre reign."