By Daniel Béland

May 7, 2026

While experience has taught Canadians that Governors-General can only be assessed once they have a record in office, Mark Carney’s choice of former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour has prompted an overwhelmingly positive response.

Carney only formally entered the political arena in January of last year but, overall, his political judgment has proved remarkably sound since he has become prime minister of Canada. His decision to advise King Charles to appoint Louise Arbour as the next Governor-General has been greeted as another example of that sound political judgment. It is also an example of what Carney values as Canadian experience equal to his own in international institutions.

Born in Montreal and aged 79, Arbour is arguably overqualified for a role that is primarily symbolic, as she previously served, in addition to her position on the Supreme Court, as a judge on the Supreme Court of Ontario and, later, the province’s Court of Appeal.

She served as chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, as a justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, and as United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Arbour’s 1999 indictment of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes after a decade of organized brutality, as just one biographical element, lent the news of her appointment a “wow” factor based on the juxtaposition of her CV with the largely ceremonial demands of her new role.

It also imbues it with a sense of timeliness that resonates with Carney’s January Davos speech. As Susan Delacourt suggested in the Toronto Star, Arbour’s appointment is consistent with the Prime Minister’s emphasis on the importance of rule of law for Canada. In fact, it would have been hard to find someone with a better CV and more appropriate background to hold such an office, especially at this time.

As a Canadian jurist known internationally from the Hague to the United Nations, she is essentially to international law what Carney is to international finance: a Canadian with a solid global reputation.

It is important to keep in mind that, although the Governor-General does spend much of their time cutting ribbons and attending ceremonies, they are a key component of our constitutional monarchy as they exercise “the powers and responsibilities of the Head of State, His Majesty The King.”

As a Canadian jurist known internationally from the Hague to the United Nations, she is essentially to international law what Carney is to international finance: a Canadian with a solid global reputation.

As the representative of King Charles III in our country the Governor-General, among other things, signs bills into law, reads the throne speech (unless the monarch does so, as happened last year), appoints key officials on the advice of the prime minister and is tasked to “ensure that Canada always has a prime minister and a government in place that has the confidence of Parliament,” a role that is particularly significant when a minority government is in power.

The Governor-General is also the commander-in-chief of Canada and “represents Canada in domestic and international ceremonies and events,” notably by “officially welcoming new ambassadors” and by hosting “foreign heads of State and members of the royal family during their visits to Canada”. In other words, although they typically act on the advice of the prime minister, the Governor-General is a high-profile if primarily ceremonial actor in both domestic and foreign policy.

Because of their high profile, Governors-General face much public scrutiny, and the two previous Liberal incumbents, Julie Payette and Mary Simon, generated controversy for very different reasons.

On the one hand, Payette ended up resigning before the end of her five-year term in the aftermath of a “scathing” workplace review triggered by a CBC investigation revealing a reportedly “toxic” work environment at Rideau Hall.

The first Indigenous Governor-General and a native Inuktitut speaker, Simon proved controversial among francophones, especially in Quebec.

That Simon was not fluent in the country’s two official languages was controversial in part because it was widely presumed to be a prerequisite at the time of her appointment. When Prime Minister Stephen Harper was considering the nomination of law professor and university administrator David Johnston to the position of Governor-General, he asked his director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, to meet with Johnston to make sure he was fluent in French before making up his mind about the appointment.

Interestingly, beyond the fact that they both speak fluently in the two official languages, Johnston and Arbour share a strong legal background, which is especially appropriate considering the constitutional duties of the Governor-General.

At the same time, as Soudas now suggests, partly because Arbour’s impressive CV matches Carney’s, he could also revive the practice that Harper adopted vis-à-vis Johnston by meeting with Arbour regularly one-on-one to discuss the issues of the day.  Considering Arbour’s knowledge of both Canada’s institutions and global affairs, the prime minister might benefit from such meetings.

By appointing a Governor-General with both ample domestic and international experience reflecting his own background and worldview, Carney is showing that he not only has a vision, but that it is a consistent component of his leadership.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Daniel Béland is professor of political science and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University.