Jeanne Sauvé

Jeanne Sauvé, 1984

Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé , PC CC CMM CD , (born Benoît; born April 26, 1922 in Prud'homme , Saskatchewan , † January 26, 1993 in Montreal , Québec ) was a Canadian journalist, politician and stateswoman. She was the first woman in Canadian history to become Governor General .

Life

Jenne Sauvé was born in the French-speaking community of Prud'homme, Saskatchewan, to Charles Albert Benoît and Anna Vaillant. She attended the Notre Dame du Rosaire convent in Ottawa and studied at the University of Ottawa . She took an active part in the university's student and political life, and at the age of 20 became national chair of the Young Catholic Students Group.

On September 24, 1948, she married Maurice Sauvé , and later that year the couple moved to Europe, where she graduated from the University of Paris . The couple had a child. She co-founded the Institute for Political Research and spent 28 years as a journalist and presenter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation .

Parliamentary career

In 1972 she was elected to parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada for the constituency of Montreal and was one of the first three women MPs from the province of Québec in the Canadian House of Commons , along with Monique Bégin and Albanie Morin . Sauvé was also the first woman from the province of Quebec to serve in Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's cabinet as Minister of State for Science and Technology . In July 1974 she was re-elected and took over the environmental department. In 1975 she was appointed Minister of State for Communication and was responsible for the French-speaking countries in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She opened the first day care center on Parliament Hill .

In 1980, Trudeau made her the first woman to be Speaker of the House of Commons in Canada .

Despite the fact that she should maintain a neutral stance as speaker of parliament, she supported those who opposed independence during the 1980 referendum on the independence of the French-speaking province of Quebec from the Canadian state. This was only possible because all the parties in the lower house at the time supported a federal structure in Canada and the referendum was initiated by the provincial government and not by a federal institution.

In addition to chairing parliamentary sessions, the parliamentary speaker is also responsible for financial management and parliamentary staff. As a spokeswoman, she brought decisive improvements to the administrative process in the House of Commons.

She led parliamentary debates on the Constitution of Canada and had to deal with numerous procedural issues such as filibusters and procedural requests . She also chaired an opposition push against the Energy Security Act , which culminated in a two-week chime after the minority faction's official spokesman refused to show his group's readiness to vote by appearing in parliament. She resisted pressure from the government to intervene to resolve the procedural block and insisted that it was up to the parties involved to negotiate a solution with one another.

In the winter of 1983 Prime Minister Trudeau announced her appointment as Governor General. After Elmira Minita Gordon from Belize , she was sworn in on May 14, 1984 as the second woman in this office in a Commonwealth State ( Commonwealth Realm ). In her capacity as Governor General, she took over the patronage of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary .

Withdrawal from politics

After the end of her tenure as Governor General in 1990, Sauvé moved to Montreal, where she mainly took care of the interests of the Jeanne Sauvé Youth Foundation, which she founded .

After a long illness, she died on January 26, 1993 at the age of 70, her husband had already died the previous year. Both were buried in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.

Honors (selection)

• Fort Sauvé at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston (Ontario) was named after her in her honor in 2001. The 5th, 6th, and 7th Squadron are housed in the barracks.

Commonwealth Realms Honors

country	Award	Award level	year
Canada	Canadian Centennial Medal	-	1967
Canada	Canadian Privy Council	Member	1972
Canada	Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal	-	1977
Canada	Order of Canada	Companion	1984
Canada	Order of Military Merit	Commander	1984
Canada	Canadian Forces Decoration	-	1984
Canada	Order of St. John	Lady of Justice	1984
United Kingdom	Order of St. John	Lady of Justice	1984
Canada	125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal	-	1992

• Privy councillor on November 27, 1972. Her appointment allowed her to use the suffix "PC" and the salutation "The Honorable" for life.
• Honorary title of "Her Excellency The Right Honorable" during her tenure as Governor General and "The Right Honorable" for life after leaving office.
• Chancellor and First Comrade (Principal Companion) of the Order of Canada during her tenure as Governor General, after which she was Comrade (Companion) of the Order.
• Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit during her tenure as Governor General, after which she was Commander of the Order.
• Canadian Forces Decoration
• Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and Prior and First Officer (Chief Officer) in Canada
• Lady of Justice in the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem .
• Medal for the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's crown (Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal)
• Honorary Doctorate in Political Science from Chulalongkorn University
• The Chancellor's Medal (Médaille de la Chancellerie) of the Universities of Paris
• The Collège Jeanne-Sauvé , a French-speaking high school in Winnipeg , Manitoba , was named after her.

Web links

Commons : Jeanne Sauvé  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography on the website of the governor general (English)
• Jeanne Sauvé - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• Order of Canada Citation (English)
• CBC Digital Archives - Jeanne Sauvé, a Woman of Firsts (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Appointment as Privy Councilor ( Memento of May 27, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) on pco-bcp.gc.ca, accessed January 4, 2009 (English)