Word: vanier
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...form of the ceremony was nearly as old as Parliament itself, but the man so honored was new. Resplendent in his red-and-silver-trimmed black uniform, tall, courtly Governor General George Philias Vanier, 71, first French Canadian to serve as the Queen's Viceroy in Canada (TIME, Sept. 21), had arrived to open Parliament. In the crowded Senate chamber, he read his first Speech from the Throne. By his side, regal in red velvet and diamonds, was his handsome wife Pauline...
...undoubtedly ram through virtually any law he wanted, but in prosperous Canada the Prime Minister wants no drastic changes. The speech's most talk-stirring feature was what it left out: for the first time since the Korean war began, Canada's armed forces went unmentioned. Instead, Vanier read-in both English and French -of the government's hope for a "controlled disarmament" in the world, which will let the cost-conscious Diefenbaker slice into Canada's heavy ($1.7 billion in fiscal 1959) defense budget. Sample of the other proposals: old-age and veterans' benefits...
This week Canada installs in office a new Governor General George Philias Vanier. 71, the first French Canadian to serve as head of state in the U.S.'s next-door good neighbor...
Almost no one could be more suitable for the mostly ceremonial position than Vanier, a courtly, erect soldier-diplomat full of years and his country's honors. Major General Vanier's family emigrated to New France from Normandy 300 years ago. Tall, mustached, old-worldly, he walks with a black walnut cane, a reminder of the leg he lost (and the D.S.O. he won) as a major of Quebec's famed Royal 22nd Regiment (the "Van Doos") at Cherisy in World War I. In Paris, where Vanier was Canada's admired postwar ambassador...
...constitutional monarchy within the modern Commonwealth of Nations, the Governor General, though he lives in high style at Government House, no longer governs except for the once-in-a-lifetime occasion when politicians disagree, and he must choose a Prime Minister to form a government. Vanier was picked by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, and in all important respects serves as the Queen's standin, exercising her powers and prerogatives. His main function is to exemplify the unifying symbol of the Crown in his travels across the land. His predecessor set an arduous example...