Roland Michener - Governor General of Canada

Governor General of Canada

Michener was immediately recalled from India and it was on March 29, 1967, announced from the Office of the Prime Minister that the Elizabeth II had, by commission under the royal sign-manual and Great Seal of Canada, approved Pearson's choice of Michener to succeed Georges Vanier as the Queen's representative. Despite being a Conservative, Liberal members of parliament and cabinet ministers welcomed the selection of Michener; Paul Martin Sr. said "I don’t think there was anybody inside or outside the public service who could qualify better than Michener... People just felt that this was a good appointment." Michener was subsequently sworn-in during a ceremony in the Senate chamber on April 17 that year, leaving one of the shortest periods where an individual has been governor general-designate.

The hurry did not end there, as, only ten days after Michener was made viceroy, he officially opened that year's World's Fair, Expo 67, which was held in Montreal. The fair, combined with the 100th anniversary of Confederation, attracted some 53 heads of state, as well as numerous other dignitaries, to visit Canada and, as per diplomatic protocol, it was Michener, as the representative of Canada's head of state, who greeted and held audience with each of them. Among this litany of guests was United States president Lyndon B. Johnson; Grace, Princess of Monaco; Jacqueline Kennedy; Emperor Haile Selassie; and French president Charles de Gaulle. Michener welcomed the latter when he landed at his first stop in Canada, Quebec City, where the president addressed the gathered crowd, and they cheered wildly for him in return, but booed and jeered Michener.

Beginning in 1963, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) became active in detonating some 95 bombs around Montreal, resulting in multiple arrests, which then led to the October Crisis in October, 1970. On the 5th of that month, FLQ members kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross and, five days later, did the same to Quebec's minister of labour, Pierre Laporte. However, it was in 2010 revealed through interviews conducted with 12 of those involved in the kidnappings, including Jacques Lanctôt and Jacques Rose, done for a documentary aired on Tout le monde en parle, that Michener had originally been their intended target; the FLQ leaders allegedly planned to commandeer the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Télévision de Radio-Canada and conduct a 24 hour telethon with the Governor General bound in a chair as a prop on the stage. Ultimately, with the two officials missing, Michener, as Governor-in-Council, invoked the War Measures Act and Quebec police, with the support of the Canadian Forces, rounded up hundreds of individuals, leading to the detention of the kidnappers and their accomplices.

On July 1, 1967, the Order of Canada was created, with Michener becoming the order's first member, as well as the first chancellor and principal companion. As such, he presided over the first investiture ceremony, at Rideau Hall, on July 9, investing 90 people into the order. On a later visit to London, United Kingdom, he presented the insignia of the Sovereign of the order to Queen Elizabeth II. Similarly, on July 1, 1972, the Order of Military Merit was founded and Michener was appointed the first Chancellor and Commander.

Another first was Michener's state visit in 1971 to Trinidad and Tobago; while King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II had both carried out state visits on behalf of Canada and previous governors general had made official visits abroad, no Canadian governor general had ever previously undertaken such a trip. Then, in October of the same year, the Governor General was off to Iran to attend the Iranian monarchy's 2,500 year anniversary. These voyages initially caused controversy among diplomatic insiders in Ottawa, who viewed it as inappropriate for someone who was not technically the country's head of state to undertake a state visit. However, the successes of the trip helped end the controversy, and established a precedent thereafter followed in Canada, and adopted by other Commonwealth realms.