Post-Colonial Moment: Michaëlle Jean

Michaëlle Jean was appointed as the new Governor General designate of Canada yesterday by Prime Minister Paul Martin at the approval of Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor General acts as the Queen's viceregal representative in Canada and is often viewed as the de facto head of state. She will officially by installed on September 27. The Haitian immigrant will be the first black person to hold this position. She will also be the third woman to be Governor General, replacing Adrienne Clarkson, the country's first Chinese woman to hold the position.

Prior to her position, Jean was a filmmaker and journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Jean married documentary filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond and together they made several films including the award-winning film, Haïti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in all Our Dreams). In the film, she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who went into exile in France from the Duvalier dictatorship and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, to tell him Haiti awaits his return. She has won many prizes, such as Amnesty International journalism award.

In announcing Jean as his choice to succeed Clarkson, Prime Minister Martin said that she "is a woman of talent and achievement. Her personal story is nothing short of extraordinary. And extraordinary is precisely what we seek in a Governor-General - who after all must represent all of Canada to all Canadians and to the rest of the world as well."

She has also been praised by both conservatives and liberals in the government. Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party, and also the Leader of the Opposition, congratulated Mme. Jean on her appointment and that her life story "serves as a great example to many Canadians. I know Mme. Jean will serve Canada in a dignified, vice-regal fashion."

With this said, how does Canada compare to the United States and other Western nations when appointing people of color and othe minorities to high political positions?