{"id":621,"date":"2021-04-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/?p=621"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:14:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T23:14:18","slug":"markle-and-payette-show-us-why-institutions-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/2021-04-15\/markle-and-payette-show-us-why-institutions-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Woodfinden: Markle and Payette show us why institutions matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Anyone looking for case studies in the decline of our vital institutions can always count on the Crown for some reliable examples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recent sagas of former Governor General Julie Payette, who resigned under fierce public pressure, and Meghan Markle, who stepped down with her husband Harry as members of the royal family, have shown us how even our oldest and sturdiest institutions can buckle under the weight of the times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Justin Trudeau announced Payette was to become the next governor general, the former astronaut was an unorthodox pick. Trudeau bypassed the viceregal appointments committee, went back to the old personal selection process and touted Payette as the person to \u201cmodernize\u201d the viceregal office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s clear that in a rush to make a glitzy progressive appointment Payette wasn\u2019t properly vetted. Moreover, as reporting revealed as early as 2018, Payette was uncomfortable with the expectations and duties of the office, and after becoming governor general Payette seemed totally unwilling to bend herself to the role that was expected of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of what is expected of governor general, and any representative of the Crown, is that they remain above the fray of politics. As a symbol of permanent power and legitimacy the Crown must remain out of partisan and political disputes. Governments may be political, but the Crown is not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just after she was appointed to the role, Payette was the keynote speaker at a convention where she attacked people who denied the human role in climate change and despaired at people \u201cstill questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process.\u201d These might seem like perfectly sensible remarks to you, but for a representative of the Crown to make them was completely inappropriate and represented a failure on Payette\u2019s part to remain above the fray. She also reportedly requested policy discussions<\/a> with ministers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These formalities, pointless as they may seem to some, remind the prime minister that their power is limited and that they ultimately serve not just the monarch, but all of us. That we\u2019ve never had a prime minister who has seriously tested the limits of their power is a testament to the strength of this system and a reason to think seriously before trying to alter it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Payette and the government failed to recognize who and what the role demanded and damaged public trust because of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike Payette, Meghan Markle is deserving of some real sympathy. It\u2019s clear from what has emerged since her departure from royal life that the Duchess had to endure unacceptable treatment. But it\u2019s also clear that Markle entered royal life without fully understanding the world she was getting into. As a very good essay<\/a> in The Atlantic recently put it \u201c[p]art of Meghan\u2019s problem was her na\u00efvet\u00e9 about the workings of the Royal Family, which she had assumed would be similar to the workings of celebrity culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n