Captain Kirk For Governor-General? 30,000 Facebook Fans Say Beam Him Up!

Michaelle Jean, current GG. Image via Wikipedia

If Ah-nuld can become the Governator and Ronald Reagan move from Hollywood to the White House, why not William Shatner?

For all of you unaware of the role of GG, that man or woman — currently Michaelle Jean, whose five-year term is soon to expire — s/he is the Queen’s representative in Canada. It’s largely a ceremonial role, but an important one nonetheless, if only for its non-partisan flavor. The GG gets to live in elegant Rideau Hall, aka Government House, one of Ottawa’s most popular tourist sites.

Now there’s a movement to beam Shatner into Government House, reports the Toronto Star:

William Shatner, Canada’s next Governor General? Why not? Worse and weirder things have happened.

The Trekkie faithful are a uniquely persistent and proactive lobby group, having pulled the venerable sci-fi franchise back from the brink on more than one occasion. But if anyone on Earth (or beyond) can elevate TV’s hammiest starship captain — and crime-fighting cop, and eccentric attorney, and ironic recording artist, and ubiquitous advertising shill — to ceremonial political office, it’s them.

The fan campaign to have the Montreal-born Star Trek star succeed current GG, Michaëlle Jean — whose own “five-year mission” is almost over — continues to gather momentum on the Internet, doubling up over the weekend with more than 30,000 registering their approval on the designated Facebook page.

Comparable Facebook petitions for email-in candidates Leonard Cohen and Preston Manning have thus far registered 6,500 and 500, respectively.

From Wikpedia’s long and detailed explanation of the GG’s role:

The Governor General alone is also constitutionally mandated to summon parliament. Beyond that, the viceroy carries out the other conventional parliamentary duties in the sovereign’s absence, including reading the Speech From the Throne, and proroguing and dissolving parliament. The Governor General also grants Royal Assent in the Queen’s name; legally, he or she has three options: grant Royal Assent (making the bill law), withhold Royal Assent (vetoing the bill), or reserve the bill for the signification of the Queen’s pleasure (allowing the sovereign to personally grant or withhold assent).^[54] If the Governor General withholds the Queen’s assent, the sovereign may within two years disallow the bill, thereby annulling the law in question. No modern Canadian viceroy has denied Royal Assent to a bill. Provincial viceroys, however, are able to reserve Royal Assent to provincial bills for the Governor General; this clause was last invoked in 1961 by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.^[55]

I sort of like this idea. (Last summer, I wrote a fun story for the Toronto Star about the gorgeous hand-made plates crafted by Ontario potter Bill Reddick for Rideau Hall, which Obama ate off when he visited Canada last year.)

As We Lose 'Lost' and 'Ugly Betty', TV's 22 Best-Ever Female Characters

Image by ewen and donabel via Flickr

As “Lost” is about to start its final season February 2, I’m going to miss Kate, its feisty and ferocious character who’s dominated many of the show’s story lines. I’ve loved her complexity and ferociousness and, as a fellow Canadian, loved the fact she’s not one more scrawny Hollywood blond, but a graduate in international relations from the University of British Columbia, happier in real life changing the oil on big rigs than modeling, both jobs she did to pay her college tuition.

Here are some of the women I’ve loved, laughed at and cried with over the years.

Here’s a site listing 30 more, and another with their top 10. Interestingly, a survey of 2,378 on-line readers found that 70.7 percent of respondents tartly replied they don’t look to TV for role models, just entertainment.

My picks:

C.J. Cregg, played by Allison Janney, on The West Wing the Aaron Sorkin drama that ran from 1999 to 2006. Tall, gangly, smart as hell, C.J. was a great mix of tough and tender, funny as hell in her role as director of White House communications.

Mary Richards, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977, a major first with a woman who wasn’t married or desperate to marry. At the time, Mary was a role model, all eager excitement about having a career and living on her own in the big city.

Lucy Ricardo, the star of “I Love Lucy”, played by Lucille Ball. She and her husband, Desi Arnaz, formed a production company, Desilu Productions, responsible for many of the hit television series of the 1960s and 1970s.

Christina Yang, played by Canadian actress Sandra Oh, on ABC’s hit Grey’s Anatomy. How many women characters anywhere get to be this stubborn, driven and so frequently emotionally tone-deaf? If you’ve ever met a successful surgeon, you’ll know there’s some truth in her portrayal. And Chandra Wilson, playing Dr. Bailey, whose marriage blows up thanks to her devotion to her career; many ambitious women can identify with her struggles to juggle family and work.

Cagney & Lacey, played by Tyne Daley and Sharon Gless, 1982-1988, in the cop drama series of the same name. Every cop show — every iteration of Law & Order — owes a debt of thanks to this show, the first TV drama to star two women.

Betty Suarez, played by America Ferrara, on Ugly Betty. A TV star who isn’t rail-thin? That’s news in itself. Betty’s work ethic could light a continent. So could her heart. Are you as persuaded as someone I know she’s going to end up marrying Daniel?

Dana Scully of The X-Files, played by Gillian Anderson, 1993-2002. Who didn’t want to be Scully, all cool rationality in the face of her partner Fox Mulder’s obsessiveness?

The women of ABC’s hit drama “Lost”: Kate, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly, Junyin Kim as Sun,  and Juliet, the cool, blond doctor, played by Elizabeth Mitchell.

Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh, aka The Closer, played by Kyra Sedgwick.

Patty Hewes, Damages, played by Glenn Close, on the FX cable channel.

Murphy Brown, played by Candice Bergen. TV’s first single mom by choice. How many television characters have ever provoked a Vice-Presidential response?

Stacey London, playing herself, in TLC’s reality show for the fashion-challenged What Not To Wear. Sue me, I love this show. As someone who finds shopping overwhelming and often just annoying, I enjoy watching her help women look their best.

The women of NBC’s hospital-based drama ER, which ran from September 1994 to April 2009: Linda Cardellini as Samantha Taggart, Alex Kingston as the widowed Dr. Corday, Nurse Abby Lockhart — prickly and determined to become, as she did, a physician.

Detective Jane Tennison in the British series Prime Suspect, played by Helen Mirren for 15 years. Chain-smoking, driven, compelling.

Lindsay Weir, Freaks and Geeks, 1999-2000, a short-lived but well-loved drama/comedy about life in high school. The role was played by Linda Cardellini, who later showed up as Samantha Taggart in ER, yet another prickly, complicated woman, a rare species on television at any time.

Lt. Uhura, played by Michelle Nichols, in the original 1960s Star Trek. Nyotu Uhura was the ship’s communications officer, a smart, professional black woman as a central character on a network television show, NBC, at a time when racial segregation still existed. The original show first aired in 1966 and only ran for three seasons and is the television show with the most spin-offs ever. Live long and prosper!

Who gets your vote?