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When the governor general shows up in a place like Humboldt, with all of the attendant publicity, she does not represent only herself or her office or even the Queen: she represents all of us, and the honour and recognition and love she brings to the people of Humboldt in such times concentrates that of 37 million Canadians. Mostly it says, we are paying attention — we are aware of your grief, and it matters to us, because you matter to us. As the failure of the governor general to show up can only convey the opposite.

But the fault for this fiasco does not lie with Payette, who is who she is, but with the government that saw fit to appoint her. The appointment is in many ways typical of the Trudeau Liberals, in its devotion to style over substance, to ticking identity boxes — a woman, young, francophone, etc. — over fitness for the job. (“She is perfectly aligned with the image we want to project,” a senior Liberal sighed contentedly at the time.)

Not only did the Prime Minister’s Office fail to consult the experts on the previous government’s Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments, but it also ignored the advice of its own Privy Council. Its vetting process — entrusted to the renowned Liberal Research Bureau — somehow failed to unearth such gems from her past as a charge of assaulting her ex-husband: expunged, certainly, but surely relevant in considering her suitability for the highest office in the land.

For in the end the choice of governor general is an expression of what we value as a society. The appointee, after all, is required not only to represent the nation but to unify it in times of crisis — the job demands, on occasion, nothing less than choosing a government. Were we a serious country, we would reserve such a position to persons of enormous gravitas: men and women of immense moral standing in the community, who had consistently demonstrated superior integrity and judgment in positions of great responsibility, figures of universal respect and even reverence.

But as we are a deeply unserious country, we deny that gravitas matters, or that some could be in greater possession of it than others. The consequences confront us.