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NP View: It's time for a new kind of Governor General

Military leaders know what it is to serve the Crown, not politics

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In a speech in May 1955, Vincent Massey, the first Canadian-born governor general (1952-1959), said true toleration was a “forbearance towards something that you do not like, or even that you disapprove of, in the interests of a greater common good.” He praised the parliamentary system as an example where speech was often frank and unpalatable, but tolerated.

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And he then added, “It is the genius of our constitution that the Crown, at its apex, stands for permanence and harmony in order that conflict of opinion in pursuit of truth may be untrammelled.”

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Massey was a businessman, philanthropist, diplomat, promotor of the arts and education, who was fluently bilingual and who visited every region in Canada, sometimes using canoe or dog team to........

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