A well-educated legal scholar will be Canada's new representative of Queen Elizabeth II to replace current Governor General Michaelle Jean, AP cited the prime minister as saying today. Conservative leader Stephen Harper said University of Waterloo president David Johnston will assume the role on Oct. 1, after Jean's term officially ends. Johnston, 69, was selected by an advisory group of constitutional experts put together by the Conservative leader. «David Johnston represents the best of Canada,» Harper said. «He represents hard work, dedication, public service and humility.» The governor general performs various ceremonial duties but is also constitutionally mandated to summon parliament and has the power to dissolve parliament or postpone its session. The governor general generally follows the wishes of the acting prime minister on most issues, but does have the power to make his or her own decisions, which are binding. «As the representative of the Queen of Canada, who is our country's head of state, I pledge to be a stalwart defender of our Canadian heritage, of Canadian institutions, and of the Canadian people,» said Johnston, days after he briefly met Queen Elizabeth II _ whom he will represent _ when she was in Toronto this week. As head of state in Canada, the British monarch serves a largely symbolic and ceremonial function. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies. The Ontario-born Johnston has studied at Harvard, Cambridge, and Queen's University in Ontario. He served 15 years as principal and vice chancellor of McGill University in Montreal before becoming president of the University of Waterloo. During his years at Harvard, Johnston became friends with Erich Segal, who went on to write the novel «Love Story,» which was turned into a popular Hollywood movie. Segal has said that a character in the book, the captain of the hockey team, is based on Johnston. Haitian-born Michaelle Jean, the first black person and only the third woman to hold the post as head of state, will assume the role of special envoy to UNESCO, the United Nations' arm for education, science and culture, after her term as governor general ends Sept. 27. She will focus on earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where she lived until she was 11. Jean faced criticism during her reign as governor general when she allowed Harper to halt Parliament's session in 2008 in a controversial move that enabled the leader to buy time to thwart an attempt by opposition parties to form a coalition government, which could have prompted an election and potentially the defeat of the minority Conservative government. Jean also made international headlines when she swallowed a slice of seal heart during a visit to the Inuit nation of Nunavut in the Canadian north. She made the gesture in support of Canada's controversial seal hunt after the European Union voted in May to impose a ban on seal products on grounds that the seal hunt is cruel.
