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Michener, Roland

Daniel Roland Michener

b. 19 Apr 1900, Lacombe, Alberta
d. 6 Aug 1991, Toronto, Ontario

Title: Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada = Gouverneur général et Commandant en chef du Canada
Term: 17 Apr 1967 - 14 Jan 1974
Chronology: 29 Mar 1967, appointed by Commission under the Great Seal of Canada [1]
  17 Apr 1967, took an oath of allegiance and an oath of office as Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, public ceremony, Senate Chamber, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario [1][2]
  14 Jan 1974, appointment superseded by the Commission of a successor effective on taking the prescribed oaths [3]
Biography:
Son of Edward Michener, a Conservative senator for Alberta (1918-1947); educated at Red Deer High School, Alberta; serving briefly with the Royal Air Force (1918); enrolled in the University of Alberta, graduating with the bachelor of arts degree in 1920; attended Hertford College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, where he became friends with Lester B. Pearson, the future Prime Minister of Canada; earned the degrees of bachelor of arts (1922), bachelor of civil law (1923), and master of arts (1929); practiced law in Toronto where he became a partner in Lang & Michener; became the secretary general for the Rhodes Foundation; was named King's Counsel (1943); elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a representative for St. David (1945-1948); served as Provincial Secretary and Registrar (1946-1948); was made a member of the Executive Council of Ontario (1946-1948); unsuccessfully contested the seat of St. Paul's, Ontario, at the 1947 General Election; entered the federal Parliament on the ticket of as a member of the House of Commons (1953-1962) on the ticket of Progressive Conservative Party , representing the riding of St. Paul's, Ontario; elected Speaker of the House of Commons (1957-1962); sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of Canada (15 Oct 1962); suffered defeat in the 1962 General Election; was appointed High Commissioner to India and Nepal (1964-1967); was recalled to take the office of Governor General (17 Apr 1967 - 14 Jan 1974) after the death of George Philias Vanier; during his tenure he presided over the opening of Expo 67, Montréal's international exhibition, which concided in time with the controversial visit of General Charles de Gaulle praising "free Québec" in his speech; was required to sign the War Measures Act into law during the 1970 October Crisis, when members of the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped a British trade commissioner and Québec's labour minister from their Montréal homes; after his term as Governor General, he served as Chancellor of Queen's University in Toronto until 1980.
Biographical sources: "Roland Michener: the Last Viceroy", by Peter Stursberg (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989); Globe and Mail, No. 44,205, 8 Aug 1991, pp. A1, A6 (obituary).

[1] Canada Gazette, Part I, No. 10, Extra, 17 Apr 1967, pp. 1-2.
[2] Globe and Mail, No. 36,615, Metro Edition, 18 Apr 1967, pp. 1, 31.
[3] Canada Gazette, Part I, No. 4, 26 Jan 1974, pp. 305-306.