One Afternoon with the Governor General

Last week I had the opportunity to meet Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, the Governor General of Canada.

As the Queens Representative and Canadian Head of State, she is the Commander in Chief of the Canada and therefore, of the Canadian Forces.

As some of you know I am currently working for the Ceremonial Guard as one of the Platoon commanders of the Parade Company. The job is a pretty sweet gig, possibly the easiest and smoothest army work I've ever had, and it comes with perks, meeting Her Excellency being one prime example.

As her personal guards, she must inspect us prior to the commencement of our summer duties (we have sentries at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Rideau Hall (her house), and of course, we do the Changing of the Guard Ceremony on Parliament Hill.

Last week on Thursday we held the Her Excellency the Governor General (HEGG) parade, for her inspection. Photos are available here, and here. As a Platoon Commander and an Officer, I am one of the guys in the front of the main body of troops, with my sword in the carry position.

First Impressions

I had heard nothing but good things about the GG prior to meeting her (members of the military, in particular, think she has been fantastic in her treatment of the troops), and admittedly I've always liked her ever since her appointment by former PM Paul Martin, so my expectations were high.

She is absolutely as gracious and classy and elegant as everyone says.

First of all, she has to be barely over 5 feet tall, she had some serious heels on and was still maybe up to my shoulder, if that.

Nevertheless, she appeared entirely at ease talking to 6ft tall uniformed infanteers.

She took her time on the inspections and talked to 1 out of every 3 to 4 soldiers, asking them questions and getting to know them. What specifically was said, I and no one else there except each of those soldiers knows, as she put it in her speech afterwards with a wink and a smile "what I talk about with the Guards is between me and my troops, its top secret information".

After the inspection was done, the officers and senior nco's were invited to the patio behind Rideau Hall to meet with Her Excellency personally.

Creole preparation

Knowing earlier in the week that I would be meeting Her Excellency, I asked some of my troops with Haitian background how to say the french equivalent of "Enchante" or (Nice to meet you in a formal way), in Creole.

(HEGG Michaelle Jean speaks 6 languages fluently (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese and Creole) and of course, Creole is her native language.)

For those of you who are wondering, muay contente sayo or something like that, is how you say enchante in Creole.

ANYWAYS, I had it totally memorized and when the moment came I was so focused on taking off my gloves and putting away the glass of water that a caterer had given me, that I think I just mumbled "great to see you ma'am, your excellency". Or something to that effect. :)

I'm not going to get into too much detail about what she said to us for obvious reasons.

But I will say this.

She was very nice, very gracious and also honest and forthright about her experiences with the military. She has visited the soldiers in Afghanistan (twice), and she contrasted that with her upbringing in Haiti which, if you know anything about her biography, her family fled Haiti in 1968 to escape the regime of dictator Francois Duvalier, who had imprisoned and tortured Jean's philosopher father.

She is clearly very interested in learning as much as possible about and from the military, and has shown such in how she has handled her position.

After our meeting the rest of the soldiers came into the patio for the reception and Her Excellency went around and talked to everyone there, all ranks and even guests.

If you ever get the chance to go to Rideau Hall (it is open to the public, and in the winter time has a sledding hill and a hockey rink for all to use at any time) I highly recommend it. It is fantastically maincured and architectured.