Rideau Hall, Monday, December 17, 2012

Sharon and I are delighted to welcome you to Rideau Hall this morning to celebrate John Ralston Saul’s commitment to this office and to Canada.

Let me begin by placing this event in context. As a viceregal spouse who made active contributions to a wonderful, six-year long mandate, John Ralston Saul is part of a tradition of governors general and their spouses working together as couples for a better country. And we are fortunate to have in the Crown Collection an artistic record of each viceregal spouse in the form of portraits and official photos.

Today’s portrait unveiling is a continuation of this tradition, which means so much to this office.   

Throughout their time here, John Ralston Saul and my predecessor, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, worked tirelessly to raise awareness of this institution and to reaffirm its relevance. Despite being the home and workplace of every governor general since Confederation, in many ways it was thanks to their efforts that Rideau Hall truly came into its own as Canada’s house.

Their commitment to “Canadianizing” Rideau Hall and the Citadelle through artworks, exhibitions, culinary experiences and, not least, the revitalization of our gardens and landscapes, remains a legacy to this day.

John in particular also worked to support the Canadian wine industry. Under his leadership, the Rideau Hall wine cellar was transformed into a showcase for Canadian wines, and the Department of Foreign Affairs launched a wine promotion program in Canadian embassies worldwide.

Besides these efforts to promote Canada, there are two other initiatives that John championed that I want to mention specifically.

One is the yearly LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium, which examines issues related to democracy, civic engagement and pluralism. This event lives on through the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, which Madame Clarkson and Mr. Saul established on leaving office.

The other program I want to highlight is French for the Future, which John helped to transform into a national movement to support French immersion and French-language communities in Canada.

A short list of his other priorities while in office includes: access to public education; Canada as a northern nation; visiting Canadian communities; and supporting our military. 

A writer and thinker deeply committed to the public good, John was recently re-elected as president of PEN International. I should also note that he is the only resident of Rideau Hall ever to have won a Governor General’s Literary Award!

In fact, I would like to quote from his book A Fair Country, in which he describes our country as “a métis civilization,” shaped by the intersection of our Aboriginal roots with more than 400 years of immigration. 

Together, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians must learn how to recognize and express our shared reality, he writes. We must “learn how to see ourselves, to identify ourselves and, finally, to describe ourselves.”

Doing so, he suggests, will allow us to discover “a remarkable power to act and to do so in such a way that we will feel we are true to ourselves.”

With this new portrait, John, together with Kent Monkman, an artist of Cree ancestry, are putting this insight into practice. It is a wonderful collaboration, certain to inspire those who visit Rideau Hall in future.

To Mr. Monkman, thank you and congratulations on a wonderful artistic achievement.

And on behalf of all Canadians, I would like to thank John Ralston Saul for his continuing, clear-eyed dedication to our common good.