Yesterday morning, at the National Gallery, prime minister Mark Carney announced that the King had approved of his choice of Louise Arbour to be the next Governor General. Arbour is a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, but has had a long and varied career both in Canada and internationally. Highlights include working with the Law Reform Commission, associate dean at Osgood Hall law school, appointment to the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal, war crimes prosecutor at the Hague, prosecuting Rwanda and Yugoslavian war criminals, and secured the first genocide conviction since 1948. She was then appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and after a few years, left that post to become the UN Human Rights Commissioner for a term, where she was attacked for calling out Israel’s actions during the war with Lebanon in 2008, even though she also criticised Palestinian militants’ rocket attacks against civilians. (She has also been portrayed on film by Wendy Crewson).

In the time since, she has served in a number of other capacities including working on several reports for the federal government, most recently around the transformation of military justice, particularly as it relates to sexual assault. At 79, she is the oldest appointee to the office in Canadian history, however that’s not necessarily a bad thing—we have had a spate of appointing Governors General who are too young, leaving them with a big question mark of what to do when their term ends when they should fade quietly into retirement. (Seriously—Ed Schreyer was made GG in his thirties, and he tried to run for office afterward, which is very bad form).

Most of the grumbling that did come from this appointment seemed to come from the fact that she is from Quebec and not from out west (even though by tradition, this was to be a francophone appointment), though I’m not sure how many reasonably high-profile Franco-Albertans/Saskatchewanians/British Columbians that had the right combination of experience and other factors there are out there. Regardless, this could have been something that a properly constituted vice-regal appointment committee might have tried to address, but we have no idea what kind of search mechanism was used to come up with this appointment, so that kind of black box doesn’t help in trying to understand Carney’s thinking here.

Starting with Massey, the birthplaces of governors general:Toronto, OntMontreal, QueLacombe, NWT (now Alberta)Saint-Anicet, QueBeausejour, ManPrud'homme, SaskSaskatoon, SaskMemramcook, NBVictoria, Hong KongPort-au-Price, Haiti Sudbury, OntMontreal, QueFort Severeight, QueMontreal, Que

— Aaron Wherry (@aaronwherry.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T21:45:00.042Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Ahead of Russia’s ceasefire, they made a glide bomb attack on Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 45 others. There was also an attack on Dnipro that killed four.

Good reads:

• The government (and Gary Anandasangaree in particular) are refusing to table the consultation report on their lawful access bill, for no apparent reason.
• Nathalie Provost says there is no push to put the government’s nature conservation promises into legislation.
• Here is an explainer about the census if you have questions.
• Politico says that the trade talks in the US broke down over complaints by automakers, and Doug Ford’s Reagan ad was merely a pretext. (You think?)
• Honda is suspending plans to build an EV plant in Canada, citing low US demand.
• Liberals on the health committee have voted down an attempt to get the health minister to testify about the PrescribeIT issue (not that she could say much).
• Christine Fréchette plans to renew the province’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause to protect language laws against court challenges.
• UCP staffers attended Centurion Project meetings, which raises even more questions about how tainted the future “referendum” is.
• Lindsay Tedds praises the long-form census.
• Christine Van Geyn points to Supreme Court jurisprudence as to why court challenges of floor-crossings would never fly.
• Emmett Macfarlane reflects on criticisms of the Supreme Court, and sorts them into the kinds of critiques that are useful versus right-wing populist demagoguery.
• Justin Ling sounds the alarm about how conspiracy theorists now run US health policy, and legitimate scientists are now being arrested.
• My column responds to some of the recent worries about the future of the Senate, and the question of its “independence.”

Odds and ends:

New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week, @patriciatreble.bsky.social and I talk about the new GG, the King's trip to the US, and the Canadian Secretary to the King. #MapleCrown #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T23:26:53.483Z

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