OTTAWA—Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected announce Canada’s next governor general on Tuesday, the Star has learned.
The Star has confirmed media reports that Carney is set to appoint Mary Simon’s successor, who the prime minister will name during a news conference in the capital Tuesday morning.
It had been widely expected that Simon — Canada’s 30th governor general since Confederation — would vacate the post after her husband, Whit Fraser, told the Globe and Mail last month that the couple was planning to depart Rideau Hall.
Carney said last month that the monarch’s next representative in Canada will “absolutely” speak both French and English, after Simon’s appointment prompted controversy over her low fluency in French.
Simon’s installation in 2021 marked the first time an Inuk had held the viceregal post.
Hailing from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, Simon spoke both English and Inuktitut and pledged to improve her French, after explaining she was not taught the language at the federal day school she attended.
Among other accomplishments, she helped negotiate the first land claim agreements in Canada, previously served as the country’s first ambassador for circumpolar affairs, and held two terms as the president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
Simon, who was named governor general by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, succeeded astronaut and engineer Julie Payette in the role after Payette prematurely exited Rideau Hall following reports of a toxic workplace culture.
