“Today, after 154 years, our country takes a historic step,” Trudeau said at a news conference at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. “I cannot think of a better person to meet the moment.”
Simon, who began her remarks speaking in Inuktitut before switching to English, said her appointment comes at “an especially reflective and dynamic time in our shared history.”
“I can confidently say that my appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada,” she said, “and an important step forward on the long path towards reconciliation.”
Simon replaces Julie Payette, a former chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency, who resigned in January amid allegations of workplace harassment and bullying that raised questions about the government’s vetting process for the role. An external review found that Payette had presided over a “toxic” workplace marked by “yelling, screaming, aggressive conduct, demeaning comments and public humiliations.”
Canada’s governor general is appointed by the queen on the recommendation of the prime minister, though in practice the monarch rarely quibbles with the pick. An advisory group was set up to submit a shortlist of possible candidates to Trudeau. He said the list was whittled down from roughly 100 possible candidates.
Simon was born in Nunavik in northern Quebec to an Inuk mother and a non-Indigenous father who managed the local Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post. She said she spent many month of her adolescence living a traditional Inuk lifestyle: camping and living on the land, and hunting, fishing and gathering food.
That, she said, allowed her “to be a bridge between the different lived realities that together make up the tapestry of Canada.”
Simon began her career in the 1970s as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. She later held leadership positions with several Inuit groups, including president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national Inuit organization. In those roles, she helped negotiate the first land-claims agreement in Canada.
Simon also served as Canada’s ambassador for circumpolar affairs, helping to establish the Arctic Council, and as ambassador to Denmark — the first Inuk to hold a Canadian ambassadorial post.
Governors general represent Elizabeth, who is queen of Canada and its head of state. They serve as commander in chief of Canada; accepts diplomats’ credentials; swear in cabinet ministers and prime ministers; grant royal assent to bills so that they become law; and read the Speech from the Throne, which outlines the government’s agenda for a new session of Parliament.
Governors general also decide whether to approve a prime minister’s request to dissolve Parliament, which triggers a new election, or to suspend Parliament.
The appointment is likely to add fuel to mounting speculation that Trudeau is eyeing a federal election this year, with several polls showing his Liberal Party on track to win back a majority of the seats in the House of Commons.
Simon and Trudeau said they had not spoken about a possible election.
It is tradition for the role of governor general to alternate between Anglophones and Francophones. Simon said that she is fluent in Inuktitut and English and that she is “deeply committed” to learning French, which she was denied an opportunity to learn in day schools in Nunavik run by the federal government.
Calls to appoint an Indigenous governor general swirled after Payette’s resignation. Some felt such a move would be a token gesture and not a meaningful step toward reconciliation.
“It would be a shocking ask of any Indigenous person,” wrote Tanya Talaga, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, “considering that the monarchy has spent centuries looking the other way while crimes of colonialism were being committed.”
Simon said she did not see a conflict between being Indigenous and acting as the monarch’s representative in Canada.
“I do understand, as an Indigenous person, that there is pain and suffering across our nation, and … we need to start to fully recognize and memorialize and come to terms with the atrocities of our collective past,” she said at the news conference. “But when I was asked whether I would take on this important role, I was very excited and I felt that this was a position that would help Canadians together with Indigenous peoples and Canadians working together, which we call reconciliation.”
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