The incredible racist, sexist and “disable-ist” vileness of that outburst aside, let me tell you I never thought I’d see the day when we’d have a Governor General who looks like Halle Berry’s older sister. (Ms. Berry, if you don’t already know, is the dishy movie actress, who is extremely talented as well, and a couple of years ago, the winner of an Academy Award as best actress for one of her movie roles.)

Our new GG, if you haven’t already read about it, is a French-speaking journalist from Quebec named Michaëlle Jean, a woman far from the manor born and raised in her early years in poverty-stricken Haiti.

Oh, did I mention as well, that she is described in media as a black person, so classified because of the colour of her skin? (It will take Don Martin and the rest of the media mavens a few years to catch up with the latest DNA research that has confirmed for sure that we are all the same under the skin and that classification by skin colour is meaningless terminology.)

Ms. Jean will take over as head of state in October, when Adrienne Clarkson finishes her term as the Queen’s representative in Canada. Like Ms. Clarkson, Ms. Jean’s family came to Canada to build a new and better life.

In the case of both women, their families obviously “done good,” as we sometimes say.

Ms. Clarkson set a new standard for our Governors General to follow. She and husband-philosopher John Ralston Saul were on the road more than most rock groups, visiting every nook and cranny of this country, and representing us well at funerals and other affairs of state abroad.

Mr. Stephen Harper and Associates fired no end of cheap shots at her, accusing her of profligate incursions into the taxpayers’ treasury to pay for her entourage and a gaggle of hot shots from the country’s artistic community to travel abroad.

Then again, Mr. Harper’s notion of Canadian culture is to be photographed eating a hot dog while wearing a cheap cowboy hat.

Adrienne brought warmth, elegance, style, an appreciation of the arts as the keeper of the soul of the country, and a celebration of excellence to the office — a veritable tornado of energy that swept away the traditional mustiness created by a succession of elderly white gents.

It must be incredibly tiresome for someone who has made her way on her own abilities to be forced to endure the sort of questions Ms. Jean had to handle at her first press conference — chief among them, the insulting notion that she was appointed as a token woman from a racial minority.

The very question reeks of racism; the insult from the notion that anyone of quality would accept such an appointment believing she was a political token. The question reflects on the ignorance and low intelligence quotient of the asker.

Her soft-spoken reply that, “I have never been a token, sir âe¦ and I never will be,” reflects on the respondent’s inherent quality of character.

Ms. Jean’s ancestors were slaves a few generations back. She comes from generations of strong women who laboured long and hard as single parents to keep their families together. Her grandmother sewed clothes. Her mother and father emigrated to this country when she was ten, after her father was arrested and tortured by the minions of Papa Doc Duvalier. Her parents later divorced, their marriage broken by the after effects of that torture on her father.

What she has become as an adult Canadian is a direct reflection of her heritage of hard times, hard work and a respect for education — universal values all, and identical to the values that drove my Scottish ancestors when they made the great voyage nearly 200 years ago.

What her appointment says to all Canadians is that we live in a country where anyone of whatever background, heritage or cultural ethnicity can aspire to whatever we want to be.

The accession of Ms. Michaëlle Jean to the Queen’s representative in Canada should be regarded as inspirational to any Canadian anywhere, be they first or fifth generation Canadians.

I, for one, am very proud to be privileged to live in such a country.