Queen Elizabeth is being ‘forced’ to select Canada’s next Governor-General because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been “negligent” in his duty to recommend a timely replacement. The post has been vacant for months following the resignation of Julie Payette.
With Trudeau triggering an election urgency law this week that requires federal political parties to ready their nominees in ridings across the country, palace aides say that the Queen was “shocked and offended” that Trudeau would attempt to call an election without a Governor General.
Doing so is wildly unconstitutional and could warrant the dismissal of Her Prime Minister, should Her Majesty require it. Now, palace insiders tell The Chronicle, that Queen Elizabeth is “being forced to appoint a Governor-General to oversee the election’s integrity.”
The role of the Governor-General is central to the Canadian constitution and — as the Queen’s representative in-country — she convenes and disbands Parliament, allows laws to take effect, and serves as commander-in-chief of the military.
In recent decades, the Queen has appointed whomever the Prime Minister of the day recommended to her — though the sovereign has unilateral authority to install whomever she chooses.
Some monarchists have advanced the idea that Queen Elizabeth should appoint Prince Harry to the role of Governor-General, though members of the Royal Family have only rarely served in that role. Political observers in Ottawa see that as an unlikely but not impossible scenario.
“If she does appoint a member of the Royal Family to serve in the role, it would probably be Harry, given that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have fairly robust ties to the Canadian establishment in Toronto and Vancouver,” explains one Palace aide.
It’s more likely that Queen Elizabeth will select a current or former Canadian politician who is not seen as being particularly close to Trudeau and would be therefore capable of providing a proper constitutional oversight of his government — which has repeatedly been called to account for a slew of ethics violations and charges of wide-ranging corruption.
Some Ottawa-based civic leaders have been advancing the idea to many influencers — including Earl Spencer, who has recently purchased a large estate two hours north of Toronto — that the Queen ought to name former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould as Her Representative in Canada.
Spencer has been increasing his presence in Toronto in recent years in an effort to preserve the monarchy in Canada.
Wilson-Raybould was expelled from the Liberal Party of Canada after revealing a scheme by top members of the Trudeau government to end a public corruption trial against SNC Lavalin, the party’s largest contributor, for political motivations.
“Wilson-Raybould would certainly be the type of independent oversight that the Trudeau government lacks, given the absentee sovereign,” one operative explains. “Canada’s constitution is predicated on the idea that the Prime Minister’s power will be checked with the oversight of the sovereign, but ours lives in London and has been much too deferential.”
Wilson-Raybould would be the first indigenous person to serve as Governor-General.
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