Under the Constitution of Canada, the government can’t enact a law until the governor general, the Queen’s representative in Canada, assents to it. Over the past 11 months, she has shown great leadership and executed, on time, all the duties that a Governor General must perform. “It’s not unusual for a governor general to test the limits, but there’s clearly more than testing going on,” said one senior government source. The network of people with knowledge of how this governor general operates is small and discreet. Within a week of Payette’s appointment as governor general, however, legal issues from after her time as an astronaut resurfaced, overshadowing the excitement around the announcement.

Source: National Post September 22, 2018 00:11 UTC