2. The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
In 2005, Jean was appointed Governor-General–the Queen’s representative in Canada and our country’s ceremonial head of state. Jean was born in Haiti and moved to Montréal as a teenager, where her academic career focused on comparative literature and languages (she speaks five). After working her way up to national prominence as a journalist, she accepted the five-year term and focused her efforts on youth issues and support for the armed forces. Perhaps her best-known act as “G-G” was responding to Europe’s ban on seal meat by jetting up north to eat raw seal heart in solidarity with the Inuit hunters. Since leaving office in 2010, Jean has become special envoy to Haiti for the UN.