Elizabeth Dowdeswell

Elizabeth Dowdeswell

Elizabeth Dowdeswell Violet , OC , OOnt (* 9. November 1944 in Belfast , Northern Ireland as Elizabeth Violet Patton ) is a Canadian civil servant and former Under Secretary General of the United Nations . From 1992 to 1998 she was Executive Director of the UN Environment Program . She has been the incumbent lieutenant governor of the province of Ontario since 2014 and as such represents the head of state, Queen Elizabeth II , at the provincial level.

biography

Dowdeswell was born in Northern Ireland , immigrated to Canada with her family in 1947 and settled in a rural area in southern Saskatchewan . Her father was a United Church of Canada minister and her mother was a teacher. She first studied home economics at the University of Saskatchewan and taught for a few years. Later she studied psychology at Utah State University , which she graduated with a Master of Science degree in 1972 . After a year teaching at the University of Alberta , she began working for the Saskatchewan Department of Education. She was a consumer advisor, ombudswoman for human rights and most recently responsible for relations with the federal government in the education sector.

After deselecting the NDP -Regierung of Allan Blakeney in 1982, the senior officials were the progressive-conservative government of Grant Devine dismissed, whereupon Dowdeswell after Ottawa moved. She first worked for the Treasury Board and later ran the Ontario branch of the Department of the Environment . As Under-Secretary of State for the Meteorological Service, Dowdeswell dealt with the socio-economic aspects of global climate change and developed measures such as an ozone warning system or an index of UV-B radiation. She was Canada's representative at the World Meteorological Organization and at the Earth Summit 1992 in Rio de Janeiro .

Also in 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously elected Dowdeswell as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations , whereupon she began her work as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), based in Nairobi . In addition to this role, she was also the Executive Director of the HABITAT program . Under her leadership, UNEP began to promote sustainable development in addition to environmental protection. After her resignation in 1998, Dowdeswell was visiting professor at the University of Toronto and from 2002 director of the newly created organization for the management of radioactive waste in Canada. She was also founding president of the Council of Canadian Academies.

Dowdeswell has received numerous awards for her services, including honorary doctorates from nine universities. In addition, she was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2012 and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal . On the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper , she was appointed lieutenant governor of Ontario and was appointed to this representative office by Governor General David Johnston on September 23, 2014 .

Web links

• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario website (English and French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Installation address. (No longer available online.) Ontario Governor General website, 2014, archived from original January 6, 2016 ; accessed on January 6, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Honorary Degrees. University of Saskatchewan, accessed January 6, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Ms. Elizabeth Dowdeswell. University of Ontario, accessed January 6, 2016 . 
4. ^ Appointments to the Order of Canada. Governor General of Canada, June 26, 2014, accessed June 29, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Elizabeth Dowdeswell to become Ontario's next lieutenant-governor. The Globe and Mail , June 26, 2014, accessed January 6, 2016 .