Daniel Roland Michener PC CC CMM OOnt CD QC FRHSC(hon) (April 19, 1900 – August 6, 1991), commonly known as Roland Michener, was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 20th since Canadian Confederation.
Michener was born and educated in Alberta, where, after serving briefly in the Royal Air Force, he acquired a university degree. He then attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, playing hockey there and obtaining his two masters degrees. Subsequently, Michener returned to Canada and worked as a lawyer before entering politics, first in the provincial sphere and later in the federal; Michener was elected to the House of Commons in 1957, where-after he served as speaker of the house until 1962 and then in diplomatic postings between 1964 and 1967. He was that year appointed as governor general by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada Lester B. Pearson, to replace Georges Vanier as viceroy, and he occupied the post until succeeded by Jules Léger in 1974. Michener proved to be a populist governor general whose tenure is considered to be a key turning point in the history of his office.
On October 15, 1962, Michener was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, giving him the accordant style of The Honourable; however, as a former governor general of Canada, Michener was entitled to be styled for life with the superior form of The Right Honourable. He subsequently served on various corporate and charitable boards and sat as Chancellor of Queen's University before he died on August 6, 1991.
Read more about Roland Michener: Youth and Education, Political Career, Governor General of Canada, Retirement and Death
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“I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.”
—James A. Michener (b. 1907)