I have been requested to consider the write-in campaign for William Shatner to be Canada's next Head of State. The Governor-General is a largely symbolic post, supposed to be the Queen's representative in Canada. That means she (currently Michaëlle Jean) or he is technically the commander-in-chief and represents Canada in a very busy schedule.
The former Captain Kirk has been touted by folks on twitter (including Leonard Nimoy, who, as soon as he made this recommendation, retired!),facebook and elsewhere. Others disagree. The Shatner building is just a few steps away from my office and the location of the extraordinarily mediocre lunch options I tend to choose, so that should make me an expert on Shatner's suitability.
As the linked post indicates, the student building was named after Shatner in a student referendum, but the university does not recognize it since the Captain has not given McGill any bucks (US, Canadian or whatever).
Shatner makes a superior pretend leader. Given that the G-G does not really make any real decisions, this would seem to be a perfect fit. Yet there are a couple of problems. First, Canada has an excellent sense of humor, exporting comedians (starting with Will Arnett and Dan Ackroyd and going all the way to Dave Thomas, Scott Thompson and Harland Williams) since they have a surplus, but they prefer to be making the jokes rather than being the subject of them. Second, Shatner has a TV pilot for next fall, and the G-G has a seriously busy schedule, so he would have to drop his various dramatic and commercial activities. Finally, there is this:
So, thanks but, um, no thanks.
2 comments:
wow, okay I hadn't seen that, and it is pretty bad. But really is Shatner as GG any worse than Ignatieff as PM? Esp. if he can get Spock into the governing act somehow...
Obviously, you guys don't "get" performance art.
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