Editorial: Should Canada have an Indigenous Governor General?
The following editorial was written by Sheena Sharp on February 18th:
Should Canada have an Indigenous Governor General?
As a representative of the Queen?
I have never been an advocate of getting rid of the Queen as our head of state, NOT because of tradition, but because the rest of the system works fairly well (except for first past the post), and so if the Queen was not here, we’d have to invent her, and I think we have other things to do. However, one of those other things is reconciliation.
Not for this GG appointment, but for the next, maybe we should have an indigenous GG, because the GG should be symbolic of the treaty relationship. Maybe all GGs should be indigenous. Maybe not under the current treaty relationship, but under a renewed one.
And about the land. Pretty soon, it may hit collective Canadian consciousness that green house gas emissions are not the only thing that will make the planet uninhabitable to humans: the complete destruction of the natural systems, particularly forest systems, will also independently kill us. And indigenous culture has practical guidance on this.
All Canadians have a shared interest in protecting the land while making a living. And we should start thinking about that.
– Sheena Sharp