Congratulations, Mayann!

Better late than never, right? She was sworn in on Sept. 7, but I just learned about it, so I am saying my congratulations today. They're going to Mayann Francis, the daughter of a man called a staunch Garveyite, and Nova Scotia's first African-Canadian Lieutenant Governor. Francis says she believes her "spirit can climb as high as (she) wants it to." It is to be hoped that those will be words of portent for the black community, coming as they do at a time when there is talk of taking a step backward by opening black-centred schools. Francis never separated herself from the rest of the society in which she lived. She has instead worked at being part of it all, and forcing any recalcitrants to accept her and all others, without reservation, as she did in 2003 when she spoke out against an award-winning advertising campaign. Although the campaign was supposedly designed to promote Nova Scotia, it did not include Aboriginal people. Blacks or new immigrants.
She is only the second African-Canadian vice-regal to be appointed, following Lincoln Alexander who held his position in Ontario from 1985 to 1991. A few more stalwarts like her and we could soon be offering our congratulations to our first African-Canadian Prime Minister.