In 1952 Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent made a bold break with precedent, and announced that for the first time ever a Canadian citizen would be appointed as Governor General of Canada. The move was somewhat controversial. Historically, the Governor General was supposed to be the emissary of the British monarch to Canada. For as long as the position had existed, it had thus been filled with imported British aristocrats; various lords, dukes, and princes who could legitimately claim to be "representing" the monarchy.

Vincent Massey, by contrast, was no aristocrat. He was a former cabinet minister and ambassador, and was a good friend of the Prime Minister. Yet at the same time he was also a highly "establishment" figure; he came from one of Canada's wealthiest families and was an enormous Anglophile. In the end, these latter characteristics may have helped earn him acceptance and legitimacy in the rather elite position. Massey proved himself to be a very capable GG, and he is now regarded as an important symbolic figure representing Canada's transition to full nationhood and independence.

Georges Vanier was the second Canadian-born Governor General of Canada, and the first French-Canadian appointed to the post. General Vanier had been a heroic soldier and commander in both World Wars and had survived many potentially fatal injuries, making him one of Canada's preeminent war heroes. Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker ran into him at a dinner party one night and decided to make him the new Governor General. Because of his service in the wars and his subsequent charity work, General Vanier is widely considered to be Canada's best-ever GG.

In this cartoon Vanier (right) is walking alongside Prime Minister Lester Pearson, who defeated Diefenbaker in the 1963 election. The cartoon is making reference to the infamous Royal Visit of 1964, which has now earned a reputation as being one of the most colossal PR blunders in Canadian history. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip decided to stop by Quebec for a visit, but the separatist-minded Quebecers weren't too keen to see them. Massive protests and riote broke out, with things being thrown at the Queen's limo and so on. To Quebecers the Queen was the embodiment of the English-Canadian establishment they desperately wanted nothing to do with.

So here we see Pearson walking away looking glum as the Queen's plane departs in the background. Quebec flags and Quebec Libre (Quebec Freedom) posters litter the streets. It was not the stirring event of national unity the Prime Minister had apparently hoped for. General Vanier looks none too pleased either. Governor Generals of Canada are always present at these sort of big ceremonial events, especially when visiting heads of state are involved.

In the background you can also see an odd-looking flag being lowered. That is the Queen's personal Canadian flag. Whenever she is present in Canada, that flag replaces the maple leaf at ceremonial events.

A career politician, Michener was a longtime member of the Liberal Party, and a very close personal friend of Prime Minister Lester Pearson. When Pearson appointed Michener Governor General in 1967, very few were surprised by the move.

Michener was an old and proper gentleman. He was probably the last Governor General to take the office seriously, and play along with all the royal pomp and ceremony. Subsequent Governor Generals have been far less formal, gradually phasing out most of the office's royalist traditions.

In this toon, Michener (on the right) is chatting with William Ross MacDonald, the then-Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Every province in Canada has a Lieutenant Governor, who is basically acts as a mini-Governor General, doing all the same sorts of ceremonial duties. One of the duties is the yearly throne speech, which I will explain in more detail later. The GG gives his throne speech on behalf of the federal government to the federal parliament (hence Michener's throne labeled "Ottawa") while the Lieutenant Governors give their speeches on behalf of the provincial government to their respective provincial assemblies (In this case Ontario).

The joke of this cartoon centers around the speeches they are holding. Since Canada is a federal state, there is always ongoing tension between the federal and provincial levels of government. Provincial governments always make grand plans, only to find out Ottawa is having some financial troubles, and will not be able to fund them. Lieutenant Governors and Governor Generals never do joint throne speeches like they are doing in this cartoon. If they did, as their speeches clearly show, the conflicts between the two levels of government would be embarrassingly highlighted.

Before being appointed GG by Prime Minister Trudeau, Mr. Léger was a longtime diplomat and Canadian ambassador. Unlike most Governor Generals he was never a politician.

In this cartoon we see Mr. Léger (right) talking to Gerald Bouey, who was the notoriously horrible Governor of the Bank of Canada at the time. During his time in office Mr. Bouey implemented a lot of very poor monetary policies, which led to notriously high interest rates and inflation. Everyone hated Bouey, and in this cartoon we see him sadly admitting to the Governor General that he can "no longer govern the country." The joke of course is that despite his title Governor Bouey is not responsible for governing the country in the first place, but he's so full of himself that he apparently believes otherwise.

See, in Canada, when the Prime Minister decides to resign, he has to formally inform the Governor General of his intentions. The Governor General can then accept his resignation and call new elections, or appoint a new Prime Minister, or refuse the resignation (the last two powers are never used, but remain part of the GG's "reserve" constitutional authority). This cartoon represents a parody of that general concept.

Around Mr. Léger's neck you can see a weird sunflower-looking thing. That is actually the Order of Canada medal, which the Governor General receives upon assuming office, if he has not won it already. The Order of Canada is Canada's highest honor, and the Governor General is the person who formally awards it to recipients. Governor Generals usually wear the medal around their necks during fancy ceremonies. It's also customary for male Governor Generals to wear the sort of "striped-pants and long coat" ensemble that Léger is wearing here.

Ed Schreyer was a longtime member of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Canada's leading socialist party. He was appointed leader of the party in his home province of Manitoba, and in 1969 was elected Premier of the province. While in office, he ran one of the most left-wing governments in Canadian history, nationalizing everything and raising spending while pontificating about class and social injustice. Everyone was thus surprised when Prime Minister Trudeau picked this leading lefty to be Canada's new Governor General in 1979. Historically, the left in Canada has been the group most critical of the monarchy and its excesses. A surprised Schreyer accepted the glamorous position, but his fellow socialists blasted him for being a sell-out.

This cartoon shows Trudeau (right) helping Schreyer (left) into the colonial Governor General's uniform. In the old days, this uniform was worn by the British Governor Generals of Canada, but was phased out after Canadians started being appointed. Jules Léger (above) was the first Governor General to formally retire its use. But the outfit remains a popular symbol of the office, especially among cartoonists.

Trudeau certainly had a field day with the Governor General appointments. One of his last deeds as Prime Minister was to appoint Ms. Jeanne Sauvé as Canada's first female Governor General. Ms. Sauvé was quite a bit less controversial than Mr. Schreyer. She had been a prominant Liberal Party politician, and was a former Speaker of the House. Sauvé served under (or above, I guess) three different Prime Ministers. Along with Trudeau, she served alongside the short-lived John Turner and the two-term Brian Mulroney.

In this cartoon, Ms. Sauvé is preparing to do the annual "Throne Speech." The Throne Speech is a special yearly event, in which the Governor General reads a special speech to a joint session of parliament. The speech is written by the Prime Minister, and it outlines his government's agenda for the coming year. Prime Minister Mulroney is sitting to Sauvé's left (which is where the Prime Minister usually sits) and telling her to call attention to his cutbacks, obviously personified by the fact that he is sitting there naked. The other satirical element of this toon is the way Mulroney is so blatantly telling the Governor General what to do, and how to read. Though the GG is obviously performing a bit of a puppet duty, it's still considered improper for him or her to read the Throne Speech in anything other than a neutral voice. You can see she looks a bit offended by Mulroney's micro-managing.

Ramon Hnatyshyn (who once described his last name as resembling "the top line of an eyechart") was Mr. Mulroney's first and only GG appointment. A longtime Saskatchewan Conservative Party politician, he was the first western Canadian to hold the viceroy's office.

Western Canadians do not usually speak French, because there is no real need to. However, the Governor General is expected to be fluent in both of Canada's official languages. This French-Canadian cartoonist is thus poking fun at Hnatyshyn (who had to learn French) by saying that all anglophones (English Canadians) should be forced to be Governor General, so they too will have to learn the country's second language.

Romeo Le Blanc was the first Maritime province Canadian to be appointed Governor General. He was also the first Acadain to get the job (Acadians being a special Maritime-based French-speaking minority group).

This cartoon highlights one of the most glaring internal contradictions of the office of Governor General. Like the Queen, the Governor General is expected to be a non-partisan figurehead, and be "above" politics. However, as you will know from reading the above profiles, virtually all of Canada's Governor Generals have been politicians of one stripe or another. Mr. Le Blanc was perhaps the most seasoned political veteran of them all. In this toon, we can see all of his past jobs represented as signs below his dolphin (the dolphin is the symbol of the Acadains, along with that flag with the star). He served as a member of the House of Commons, a cabinet minister, a Senator, Trudeau's Press Secretary, and a bunch of other things, all as a partisan member of the Liberal Party. It seemed a bit much to expect Mr. Le Blanc to "turn off" the political views he had spend a lifetime creating upon assuming the Governor Generalship. His appointment by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien seemed to indicate Le Blanc's latest job was little more than a shallow patronage appointment.

The little sign is pointing to "Rideau Hall" which is the name of the Governor General's official residence. Le Blanc is saying "Enfin" which is French for "finally."

Adrienne Clarkson was Canada's second female Governor General, the second one to be appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and as an Asian, the first one to be non-white. Most likely as a result of Chretien's bad memories of the fallout of appointing the overtly political Le Blanc, Ms. Clarkson is without a doubt the least political of all Canada's Governor Generals. Prior to her appointment she was the host of a semi-popular interview television show. A sort of Canadian Larry King, if you will, except with slightly fewer failed marriages.

Anyway, Ms. Clarkson came to office pledging to restore "dignity and elegance" to the position of Governor General. What this amounted to in practice was a 200% increase in the office's spending. In 2003, Clarkson and her husband, the infamous writer/self-proclaimed "philosopher" John Rouston Saul, went a series of expensive trips, the most notable being a multi-million dollar excursion to Finland and Iceland. The couple had originally planned to go on a second "circumpolar tour" in 2004, but public backlash over the cost of the first one caused Prime Minister Paul Martin to quickly squash that idea.

In this toon, we see the happy couple in the front yard of Rideau Hall, which is that mansion in the background. The Governor General is flying her official flag on the igloo. Whenever the Governor General enters a building, they are required to fly her flag so all the common people outside can be alerted of her presence.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, who replaced Chretien in 2003, was only in office for a fairly short period of time. One of his few "legacies" was the appointment of Michaëlle Jean as Governor General.

Jean was in many ways a sort of "Clarkson II." Like Clarkson, she was a woman, an immigrant, an ethnic minority, a member of an inter-racial marriage, and a former television host on the CBC. Jean was a refugee from Haiti who had fled to Quebec with her family at a young age.

Jean's appointment was controversial for a number of reasons. Initially, she was accused of having ties to the Quebec separatist cause- certainly an odd thing for a "symbol of unity" to do. She denied ever having such ties, and has since gone out of her way to act as loyal to Canada as possible.

The other main criticism was more directed towards Paul Martin. Many conservative critics blasted Jean's appointment as an act which reduced the office of Governor General into little more than a symbol of affirmative action and political-correctness. That was certainly my view when I drew this cartoon; I saw Jean as a woman who was being promoted because of the various labels she carried, not her competence or skill.

It's hard to tell from my simple drawing, but this cartoon is supposed to show Jean taking her oath of office in the Canadian Senate, per the tradition. Administering the oath is the Chief Justice of Canada in her ceremonial robes, to the left is Prime Minister Martin, to the right is Jean's husband.