Evening star., 1954-05-02

USIs Q1Q1OINdL, paLTOn OF the AICSs
mentor of Canadian culture and
Governor General.
AS Governor General Mr.. Massey
is neither a governor nor a general.
He Is the personal representative Of
the Queen of Canada who, because
she is also Queen of Great Britain.
normally resides in the United
Kingdom.
He is her majesty's viceroy, her
shadow in Canada" temporary
and substitute monarch who be-
comes but private citizen the mo-
ment she sets foot in her Canadian
kingdom. He is appointed by the
Queen on the advice of the Ca
madam Prime Minister-which in
reality makes him an appointee of
the peoples elected representatives.
His eXcellency the Governor Gen.
eral is chief of state, like President
Eisenhower. He is also commander
in chief of the Canadian armed
forces. but only in an honorary sense.
He has no real military powers. and
could not order the forces into action
unless the Canadian government re-
quested him to do so. In fact Mr..
Massey is bound by the Canadian
constitution to act only according to
the advice he receives from his cabi-
net. which is headed by Prime Min
lister Louis st. Laurent.
The Governor General not only has
no political power, but he is above
politics. He is figurehead symbolic
of the crown as an institution be-
loved and revered by Canadians. He
is also the personif1cation of the
crown as a great unifying force which
has helped weld this country into a
sovereign state despite differences Of
language and religion. culture and
climate. economics and geography.
and despite the appeal of union with
the United States.
So. while Mr.. Massey and Mr..
Eisenhower are both chiefs of state.
it is Prime Minister st. Laurent, as
leader of the dominant Liberal Party
In Parliament. who possesses power
comparable to Mr.. Eisenhower's au-
thority as head of the Republican
administration in Washington.
JOINS Cobinet at 81
Mr.. Massey, who Is Ct and q
widower, has been in public life since
1925, when at the age of 38 he re-
tired as president of the Massey
Harris Co. to become minister in
the cabinet of the late Prime Minis
ter Mackenzie King.
Later he served as Canadian Min.
lister to the United States and Ca
madam High Commissioner to Great
Britain.
Mr.. Massey has long been Can
ada's leading patron of the arts, and
especially of painting and architec-
ture. He had been trustee of the
National Gallery of Canada since
1925. and after his return from Lon
don he became chairman of the
board-a position he had also held
IN relation to the National Gallery
IN London. He was also named
chancellor of the University of To-
ronto, his alma mater and one of
the % colleges which have granted
him honorary degrees.
Mr.. Massey's unparalleled position
IN relation to the cultural life Of
Canada made him the obvious
choice as chairman of a royal COM
mission which Prime Minister St.
Laurent set up in 1949.
The government asked the roval
commission to investigate national
development in the arts, letters and
sciences, and to make recommended
tlonS aimed at fostering the growth
OF distinctive Canadian culture.
one OF the factors which prompted
this investigation was a fear that
Canadian culture was being over
Whelmed by the made-in-U. s. A.
product
Mr.. Massey considers the royal
commission's report to be his great
est achievement.
His personality pervades the re-
port. Foreign reviewers have said
it carries an anti-American bias.
Canadians regard it not as anti
American. but as pro-Canadian, and
as blueprint for the development
of the cultural side of Canadian
life parallel to the presently more
impressive development of the ma
terial side. |,
But if the report achieves nothing
else. it did establish Vincent Massey
as the first person people thought
of when the question of a Canadian
as Governor General came up. All
earlier Governor Generals had been
Britons.
Tomorrow Mr. Massey will be re.
paying Mr.. Eisenhower's visit to
Ottawa last November and will seek
thereby to strengthen the friend
ship and understanding which ex-
lists between the Canadian and
american peoples. l.