the notion, through various demonstrations, that the governor general was ultimately the Canadian head of state above the Queen herself, an approach that was said by Jack Granatstein to have caused "a fury" with the Queen on one occasion in 2004. This attitude was not unique to Clarkson, though; it had been observed that, for some decades, staff at Rideau Hall and various government departments in Ottawa had been pushing to present the governor general as head of state, part of a wider Liberal policy on the monarchy that had been in effect at least since the proposed constitutional changes in the 1970s, if not the 1964 Truncheon Saturday riot in Quebec City. Indeed, international observers opined that the viceroys had been, over the years, making deliberate attempts to distance themselves from the sovereign, for fear of being too closely associated with any "Britishness" the monarch embodied. Prime Minister Paul Martin followed Chrétien's example and, for Clarkson's successor, put forward to the Queen the name of Michaëlle Jean, who was, like Clarkson, a woman, a refugee, a member of a visible minority, a CBC career journalist, and married to an intellectual husband who worked in the arts. Her appointment initially sparked accusations that she was a supporter of Quebec sovereignty, and it was observed that she had on a few occasions trodden into political matters, as well as continuing to foster the notion that the governor general had replaced the Queen as head of state, thereby "unbalancing ... the federalist symmetry". But Jean ultimately won plaudits, particularly for her solidarity with the Canadian Forces and the Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as her role in the parliamentary dispute that took place between December 2008 and January 2009. With the appointment of academic David Johnston, former principal of McGill University and subsequently president of the University of Waterloo, there was a signalled emphasis for the governor general to vigorously promote learning and innovation. Johnston stated in his inaugural address: "[We want to be] a society that innovates, embraces its talent and uses the knowledge of each of its citizens to improve the human condition for all." There was also a recognition of Johnston's expertise in constitutional law, following the controversial prorogations of Parliament in 2008 and 2009, which initiated some debate about the governor general's role as the representative of Canada's head of state. Activities post-retirement Retired governors general usually