EXCELLENCY

The Governor-General of Canada was reviewing her troops, in this particular case the bold and brave Princess Pats of Winnipeg. She stood with her husband, John Ralston Saul, on a raised stand in a drafty Winnipeg arena on a cold afternoon last December, her own store of service and order medals on her chest and a pretty serious expression on her face. She cleared her throat and then, speaking for all Canadians as only a governor-general is able, she apologized for the unconscionable delay in honouring the regiment for its courage and acumen in wartorn former Yugoslavia 10 years ago.

The second battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian light Infantry Battle Group, on a peacekeeping mission under the United Nations' banner, got caught in a ferocious 15-hour encounter with Croat forces intent not only on eliminating the peacekeepers, but doing a fair bit of ethnic cleansing at the same time.

The Patricias, named after a governor-general's daughter a century ago, acquitted themselves with great courage, standing their ground under deliberate and sustained machine-gun fire, and giving back as good as they got. It was peacekeeping and courage of the highest order. The only problem was the "powers that be" at that time did not like the image of fighting Canadians, so this great act of bravery under fire, typical of Canada's armed forces, went unnoticed, unheralded and unhonoured for a decade.

That is why the new commander-in-chief became one of the leading figures trying to redress the situation shortly after coming to high office and learning of the situation. As she stood before this parade of all the soldiers who had fought in the Medak Pocket Operation in former Yugoslavia on Sept. 15,1993, and prepared to give them all a special Commander-In-Chief Commendation for courage, she had that fixed air of both warmth and certitude that has become the emotional hallmark other days as Governor-General:

"Defying intimidation and direct fire, you showed that it wasto perform armed and determined peacekeeping. You helped to bring into focus what peacekeeping really involves. You know, all of you, that it was the only way to bring peace and discharge the UN mission with which you had been tasked. Yet the simple fact remains that very few of us as Canadians knew what you did in 1993. Your actions were nothing less than heroic, and yet your country didn't recognize you at the time.... You have acted in a manner for which the Patricias are best known: courage, coolness under fire and the readiness to seize the occasion or the enemy ground ahead."

All around her, in the stands of the arena where the families of the soldiers listened in rapt attention, and out on the parade area where the soldiers stood to strict attention, you could sense the emotions. It was electric.

The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson is more than halfway through her five-year term of office and already she has proven herself to be the most memorable and important Governor-General since Georges Vanier who died in office at the beginning of the country's centennial year. And not just most memorable and important - because the competition hasn't been particularly stiff - but most significant too, in that she has revived an office that was almost lost for good, sunk deep as it was in irrelevance, ignorance and accelerating contempt.

Although it is too early to make an overall assessment of Adrienne Clarkson's tenure at Rideau Hall, some things are already very clear. She is the best public orator the country has had since....well, I don't really know when.

You have to go back pretty far to find anyone who stirred national emotions the way Clarkson did with her magnificent speech dedicating the new memorial for the Unknown Soldier. She's the only Canadian in public office at the moment making Canadians feel good about themselves and their country.

Part of her appeal is that she understands perfectly the role she is supposed to play. Many of the people who did not like Adrienne Clarkson very much before she became Governor-General - and her acerbic interview style during a sustained and successful television career did not charm everyone, nor did some of her trenchant views on Canada - now say that before she was elevated to the office she carried on "like a governor-general," but now that she actually is one, she has learned to reach out. Her deep longing to stand for human values was allowed to surface in a warm public persona never before seen.

The change in perception is important, but it's a superficial observation, gleaned mostly from her media coverage. It's also not true. Or at least it's far from the whole truth. Adrienne Clarkson is still very much the same person she was before becoming Governor-General, although as she grows into the job it is true she has reached deep into her strong Christian faith and mystical love of the land to find new personal resources. That love and faith, plus the extraordinary fate that brought her to Canada as a child r'efugee from wartime Hong Kong, make for a fairly compelling vice-regal personality.

She also has come to the office of Governor-General at a time when Canadians have been bombarded with huge changes in their national self-perception and self-esteem, along with equally huge doubts about the country's future. She doesn't quite say it, but this Governor-General has clearly mandated herself to try as best as she is able to heal Canada's ancient wounds with words and actions of comfort and encouragement, and at the same time to try to patch up the fraying fabric of national life even as the gravediggers of Canada are hard at work on most fronts.

With "ancient wounds," she has special clout. She has made a point of embracing and championing aboriginal causes and identifying them with her vice-regal mandate. Whenever she can find an excuse, she and John Saul head due north or northwest. With the "fraying fabric," her biggest success has been in Quebec and here the combination of her immigrant background and her husband's ability to debate and take on Quebec's philosophes as no other anglophone thinker has ever dared (or been able) has had a remarkable effect. The Governor-General and her spouse are respected figures in Quebec, respected for themselves, and through them the office has gained a quiet stature it has not had for a long time.

Clarkson and Saul use their second official residence in Quebec City - the vice-regal apartment in La Citadelle, high over the St. Lawrence - as often as they can. They have tried, within the constraints of an extremely busy schedule and the ceremonial obligations of office, to carry on as if they had always been in the neighbourhood. They use their residence in Quebec City as a base for visits all around the province. Their ease with the French language, and their championing of it across the country, has been noticed and appreciated in the francophone media.

At Rideau Hall itself, the transformation has been nothing short of miraculous. The official residence and office of the Governor-General has been opened up as it has never been before, but at the same time a dignity and panache have been added that has been missing since the demise of the imperial vice-regal appointments. The imagination used at Rideau Hall - from the minute details of pictures and books about Canada in all the quest rooms to the instructions on how visitors are to be treated by the household staff - all bear the Clarkson-Saul stamp.

In the midst of the splendour of Rideau Hall, Clarkson and Saul live in relative modesty. The small apartment at the end of the second-floor hall contains a large bedroom, a study-living room and a small kitchenette. Seeing it for the first time, most visitors report the same thing: "That's it?" The difference with this Governor-General is that she and her man consider the whole house livable, so they have brought domestic details to bear on even the most formal of the state rooms. During the long winter, for example, Clarkson personally supervises the potted plants and flowering bulbs that festoon many of the rooms. Saul's supervision of the wine lists is becoming legendary and guests risk a certain chill if they do not evince a measure of enthusiasm for Canadian wines.

Walk down the main hallways and you will find "showcase Canada" - display cases with both antique crafts and the work of current artists. The positioning and variety of paintings on the walls of all rooms are regularly analyzed and rethought. They also go out of their way to invite a wide range of Canadians to stay at the place or be entertained there. The staff treat people as if they belong to the house and have been invited to partake in a great Canadian venture. If they are overnight guests, they are also treated to small gifts: maple syrup from the sap of Rideau Hall trees, a jar of peach chutney made by a small firm of provisioners in Wakefield, Que. - everything; has a connection either to Canada Past or Canada Now. It is quite remarkable the degree to which this couple have gone to make Rideau Hall a showcase.

The Governor-General of Canada may have an exclusively ceremonial and symbolic role, but that does not mean it is just a lark. There are the official government duties (the state open- ing of Parliament, swearing-in of Cabinet ministers, being regularly consulted by the Prime Minister), two large residences to manage, a host of formal events (everything from diplomatic receptions to the annual winter party that has been held on the grounds of Rideau Hall ever since there were governors-general), and an intricate system of honours that have become an important part of the identity of Canada. There are military honours and civilian honours, most notably the Order of Canada.

And that doesn't even begin to take in the scale of the lesser- known requirements of the office this vice-regal couple have seemed eager to take on in unprecedented volume - last year alone, they carried out nearly a thousand events - while still managing a little time for private holidays in their beloved Georgian Bay cottage. Strangers to vice-regal office can scarcely imagine the variety of activity. It's an extraordinary gilded treadmill requiring Clarkson to sign bills, greet foreign envoys, inspect mil- itary bases, hand out medals, encourage volunteer workers all across the country, unveil endless plaques, deal daily with a vast household staff, visit seemingly numberless schools and university campuses, greet and host foreign guests, throw vast receptions and dinner parties for everything from the Michener Journalism Awards to the Governor-General's awards in industry: The list goes on and on. She seems to enjoy most of it and particularly likes getting out of Ottawa. And whenever she can come into contact with Canadians, her world seems to lighten up.

Last year, to recognize the 50th anniversary of the appointment of the first Canadian-born governor-general (Vincent Massey who resided at Rideau Hall from 1952-1959), the Order of Canada ceremonies, normally held in Ottawa,were moved all across the country. When a governor-general of Canada moves in state like this, she comes with all her relevant officials and there is an enormous amount of advance work to be done. Vice-regal honours ceremonies under this Governor-General come off without a hitch, because Clarkson has gathered together a superb staff and is a details fanatic. There's a kind of Wagnerian leitmotif to Clarkson's ceremonies: They are never heavy or pompous, but the words "detail, detail, detail" always hover on the immediate horizon. Nothing is served from her kitchen that doesn't have a lot of thought put behind it. No picture is on the wall without a reason. No vice-regal tour is arranged unless it serves an easily defined purpose. Although she has sterling researchers at hand, she puts her own speeches together, usually starting with dictation so her own voice dominates from the beginning of the process, and men polishing the text drafts as they are worked on. Details, details, details.

All of this care can be seen to great effect at the Order of Canada ceremonies, which anyone can watch on cable television because they are relentlessly replayed for weeks afterwards. They all come off perfectly, they are all highly moving, and they all speak to the heart of what Clarkson has managed to do in office. Symbolically, it comes down to one special part of her speech that always brings out the handkerchiefs amongst the honorees and their families in the audience:

"There's someone who is here today, but may not be with us," she tells them. "It's the person who always knew you would make it here, who had faith in you from the beginning, who helped to guide you along the way, and who's telling you "well done'...."

The lines vary a little from ceremony to ceremony, but she always delivers them perfectly and they never fail to stir people's memories of parents and grandparents, or of teachers and mentors. And when you hear her deliver these words, you know for sure - if you didn't before - what a brilliant governor-general she has become.

Georges Vanier, who was governor-general from 1959 to 1967 once said that the only really important time in anyone's life is "the present time" because only in the present can you take action to change things for better or for worse. Adrienne Clarkson and John Saul have grabbed hold of Present Time with more fervour and energy than any previous vice-regal figures and within the limits of their office, they are making a difference. She has decided to make social issues the key concern of her last two years in office and she intends to fight for a strong central role in public education. And no one who knows her thinks she will talk in platitudes.

Not everyone loves Clarkson and Saul, heaven knows. Just recently the (Anglican) Governor-General got into hot water by taking Roman Catholic Communion and not apologizing. Even within constitutional boundaries, the pair of them remain outspoken and still irritate some people, although not at all to the degree that they did when the announcement of their appointment first came from the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa three years ago. "Activists to move into Rideau Hall" blared the headline of the National Post. Worse - much worse - was waiting for Clarkson at The Globe and Mail, where that newspaper's pit bull terrier, Jan Wong, unleashed a couple of columns of such vitriol - accusing Clarkson of abandoning two daughters from her former marriage with University of Toronto professor Stephen Clarkson, of being a phony Chinese who disdained her ethnic background - that it probably made a lot of new friends for the couple through sheer disgust at the ad hominem nature of the attack.

For Clarkson, in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of her appointment, the estrangement from her daughters brought a private tragedy out in the open. Those who saw it will never forget the dignity and stoical distress she showed in a television interview when the subject was gingerly approached. Those daughters are married now and this, coupled with the passage of time, has resulted in the necessary healing to bring about a reconciliation. Although the Governor-General will not expand on the subject and tries hard to keep a comer of privacy in her life, it is clear to all who work around her that this change in fate, and the arrival of her first grandchild, has wrought a significant miracle in her life, one that can be understood by anyone who has been through family strife. If there is a fresh bounce and extra energy to the way Clarkson goes about her official duties these days, it is not because she is the right person in the right job enjoying herself to the hilt. It is also because she has become the beneficiary of grace that she had almost given up hope of achieving, but that found her out and embraced her whole.

John Ralston Saul, with whom Clarkson had lived contentedly for years, but to whom propriety demanded a formal union before they moved into Rideau Hall, has proved himself a remarkable support in a position prone to evoke mockery. The spouse of a governor-general is usually female and the one exception - Maurice Sauve, husband of Jeanne Sauve - was not exactly a peer mentor, thanks to his meddling in state affairs and the suspicions aroused by his ever-expanding business directorships.

Saul, of course, is an award-winning writer, novelist, essayist and and public polemicist with an international following. His 1996 Massey Lecture, The Unconscious Civilization, is still one of the best-selling books in the entire series (up there with Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination and Jean Vanier's Becoming Human). In his new role, he clearly but only occasionally expresses some of the frustration of holding back his writing career. When he does produce a book, as he did last year with On Equilibrium, he gets an extra dose of criticism for "jeopardizing the office of governor-general" with an actual opinion or two, but none of the mudslinging has stuck. He remains very much his own man - "the squire of Rideau Hall" - who hugely enjoys himself as he supports Clarkson in every way possible.

Saul sees what he does in this supporting role as a vocation, -- even a duty, so with typical energy, elan and occasional oversell p he has championed bilingualism, Canadian wines, Canadian history, public education and human rights - to name a few of the is causes he can be dragged across the nation to support. And he doesn't go in for half measures.

He refused to shake the hand of the Myanmar ambassador at a reception last year because of continuing human rights abuses in the former Burma, an act almost unprecedented in the world of Ottawa's formal diplomatic etiquette. It made the point, though, just as he makes the point that Canadian universities are failing the country by downgrading bilingual education despite the fact that public high schools are still doing a good job in this area. Sometimes you can see businessmen and academic leaders silently grind their teeth as Saul lectures them, but he makes his points with a big smile and he always leaves them with something to think about.

Clarkson deals matter-of-factly with her constitutional role. As the Queen's representative, she meets regularly with the Prime Minister to be briefed on government activity and cites Bagehot's famous dictum of a sovereign's three remaining rights ("to be consulted, to encourage and to warn") to define her own approach to the role. A strict constitutionalist, even as she brings more and more Canadian embellishments to the vice-regal office, she understands the lustre the Crown affords, admires the Queen and shudders a little in sympathy with members of the Royal Family at the degree of intrusion into their lives they must bear these days. She leams every day in office that the concept of an appointed representative of the head of state in Canada offers a unique chance to bridge historical anomalies and reach out in ways political leaders simply can't.

The appeal of the constitutional role of the Crown is so difficult to explain in words, or justify in an era where deference to authority of almost any sort has been obliterated. Somehow, Adrienne Clarkson has managed to sidestep all these thorny issues and contradictions, these alleged anomalies and anachronisms. I think it is because she loves Canada to the very core of her being, loves it because citizenship was acquired at cost rather than coming as a right of birth, loves it because her Chinese ethnicity allows her a freedom to criss-cross all our national sensi- tivities without harm, loves it with mystical depth.

Just before the announcement of her appointment, she and Saul travelled to the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of northern British Columbia. I heard from someone who travelled with them and they talked about how Clarkson seemed to wrap the very morning mist around her shoulders with exuberant excitement. Her love of the country and her sense of the mystery inherent in the "true North, strong and free" is at the root of her success in office. People sense it is real and think fondly of her for it.

Shortly after Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee Tour of Canada with Prince Philip, The Globe and Mailo' Ken Wiwa - son of the Nigerian patriot-martyr Ken Saro-Wiwa - wrote trenchantly about the subtle power of constitutional leaders. Wiwa writes from the perspective of an immigrant and with a certain amount of vinegar and salt in his views on royalty (his column was decked out in a cheeky headline: "The House of Wiwa salutes the House of Windsor"), His real point was reserved for the end and it was powerful:

"That Adrienne Clarkson, once a refugee, represents the Queen here in Canada is, for me, the singular most important reason for believing that the monarchy is relevant to Canada's emerging identity. Her role may only be ceremonial and symbolic, but as the enduring quality of the Royal Family attests, you can never underestimate the power of myth. Even - or rather, especially - in this iconoclastic age."

In a country where many people simply cannot see a confident future and at a time when the political parties have hit a new low point in public respect, it is extraordinary, and unusually fortunate, that a Chinese refugee girl came to speak for all of us and prove we are a country of consequence where dreams can still become reality.

John Fraser © National Post