September 28, 2006

by Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean

Yesterday was a very special day for me. Exactly one year ago, on September 27, 2005, I became Canada’s 27th governor general. Since then, I have travelled from coast to coast to coast, visiting 8 provinces, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I always told myself that I needed to find a way to continue the dialogues begun, to share the ideas and initiatives I had seen along the way. And what I heard everywhere I went was an overwhelming desire from Canadians to connect with one another, right across this country.

So yesterday morning, my husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I had the pleasure of marking this first anniversary with a discussion at La Cité collégiale in Ottawa with 150 young people from across Canada, thanks to Rencontres Historica and Nunavut Sivuniksavut We, along with our team, were excited to show them this new component of our Web site and to hear what they had to say. They spoke of involvement in their community; they told us how the Internet can help them make their voices heard, connect with others, and see things in a new light. Such a rich and passionate discussion, where all borders simply vanished!

And so, at 7:00 p.m., we went live: over 244 people came out to chat about their hopes and aspirations. There was such a flurry of questions that we had to add on an extra thirty minutes! Nearly every province and territory was online!

It was a new experience for me: answering such varied and in-depth questions so quickly. Each time, I tried to put a face and a voice to each question. In an hour and a half, I managed to answer 55 questions in all. I felt very close to you and could feel the enthusiasm in the air. I can’t wait to do it again, so we need to start thinking about what we’ll talk about next. Any ideas?