{"id":659452,"date":"2026-05-10T03:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/659452\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T03:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:30:15","slug":"nunaviks-bossy-little-old-lady-leaves-enduring-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/659452\/","title":{"rendered":"Nunavik\u2019s \u2018bossy little old lady\u2019 leaves enduring legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadians now know about ajuinnata \u2014 thanks to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.<\/p>\n

She introduced many of us to the Inuit concept of perseverance or never giving up shortly after she became governor general in 2021. That should be her vice-regal legacy.<\/p>\n

Ajuinnata was her trademark motto, but she shared it with Canadians and others. It helped set the tone Canadians needed to hear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her leadership reinforced the message that governments at all levels were promoting.<\/p>\n

Five years later, her time as the King\u2019s representative in Canada is winding down. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced this week that former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour will succeed Simon in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced Simon would become the first Indigenous person to hold that office. It was an appointment steeped in symbolism.<\/p>\n

At the time, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed said Simon was \u201can ideal Governor General<\/a> for this place and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

His assessment proved to be spot on.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Think back to how tumultuous 2021 was: the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Canadians were finally coming to terms with the truth of the abuses of Indigenous children at residential schools.<\/p>\n

And the previous governor general, former astronaut Julie Payette, had recently crashed and burned after allegations she had turned Rideau Hall into a toxic workplace.<\/p>\n

Enter Simon, a calm, mild-mannered Inuk woman. Despite her telling the country that her Inuit name, Ningiukadlak, means bossy little old lady, in public she conveyed serenity, wisdom and grace.<\/p>\n

Simon \u2014 who experienced online abuse herself, and who shut down comments on her official social media accounts because of it \u2014 urged Canadians to stand up to what has become a scourge in Canadian society.<\/p>\n

Simon was a friend to Nunatsiaq News and its readers while she was governor general. The Nunavik-born leader made time for several one-on-one interviews, including at the end of 2023<\/a> and on last year\u2019s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, Simon\u2019s inability to speak French \u2014 one of Canada\u2019s two official languages \u2014 proved to be controversial \u2026 but, not surprisingly, she persevered.<\/p>\n

She promised to learn French. With her professional track record, it seemed likely that, with some study, she would achieve a level of proficiency exhibited by many unilingual leaders who must learn French once their career trajectory thrusts them onto the national stage.<\/p>\n

Her ability to function in the language of Moli\u00e8re improved slightly but she never demonstrated the proficiency and comfort level typically expected of national leaders.<\/p>\n

The country didn\u2019t collapse.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably good that Arbour is fluent in both English and French \u2014 a return to the tradition of having a governor general who can speak both. Some day, there will be a governor general who speaks English, French and an Indigenous language.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that long ago that governors general spoke only English and were members of the British upper crust \u2014 dukes and earls \u2014 sent to Canada as a reward.<\/p>\n

In 1952, Vincent Massey became the first Canadian-born governor general. And it wasn\u2019t until 1967 that Roland Michner became the first francophone to hold the office.<\/p>\n

With her remaining time in Rideau Hall measured in days, it\u2019s appropriate to look at Simon as the governor general Canada didn\u2019t know it needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadians now know about ajuinnata \u2014 thanks to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon. She introduced many of us to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-659452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}