Amidst traditional pomp, regal pageantry and a slice of indigenous culture, former astronaut Julie Payette was sworn in as Canada’s 29th Governor General on October 2.
She assumed her royal duties on Parliament Hill, under the watchful eyes of parliamentarians, former prime ministers, Supreme Court judges, former governor generals, 400 invited guests and her 14-year-old long-haired son, Laurier Payette Flynn, who, as Payette said during her speech looking at him lovingly, gave her permission to accept the responsible post.
The daughter of a theatre accountant and engineer, Payette, 53, was a stellar student at McGill University, where she came to the attention of an IBM executive. He hired the student intern after she graduated.
Upon graduation, Payette worked with IBM in Zurich and Bell-Northern Research in Montreal, before becoming one of four chosen from more than 5,000 applicants in 1992 to become an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency. Payette completed two spaceflights logging more than 25 days in space. She served as chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and has served as capsule communicator at NASA Mission Control Center in Houston.
She is fluent in French and English, and can converse in Spanish, German, Italian and Russian. She plays the piano and has sung with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and several others. She took a copy of their recording of Handel’s Messiah with her into space.
In her speech in English and French mixed with an indigenous language she said she is proud of her ancestry, adding that one of them was an explorer and has a river named after him in Idaho. Francois Payette was one of the early pioneers of European descent to settle in southwestern Idaho and the Payette River is named after him.
It was a day special for 800 students of a bi-lingual school named in her honour in Whitby, Ontario, about 30 minutes’ drive from Toronto downtown. They came on TV and wished her success and thanked her for inspiring them.
Former prime minister Jean Chretien, when asked what advice he has for her, said ‘just be yourself.’
Payette married engineer François Brissette in the 1990s and her second marriage was to William Flynn whom she divorced in 2015.
