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Report: Retired Astronaut to Be Canada’s Next Governor General


Mission Specialist Julie Payette, of Canada, prepares to board the space shuttle Endeavour, July 15, 2009, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Payette, now retired, is reported to be named the next governor general and Queen Elizabeth's representative in Canada.
Mission Specialist Julie Payette, of Canada, prepares to board the space shuttle Endeavour, July 15, 2009, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Payette, now retired, is reported to be named the next governor general and Queen Elizabeth's representative in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will name retired astronaut Julie Payette as the next governor general, the acting head of state and Queen Elizabeth's representative in Canada, media outlets reported Wednesday.

Payette, 53, would replace outgoing Governor General David Johnston, 76, whose term is set to expire in September after nearly seven years in office.

Trudeau, who made headlines by naming a gender-balanced Cabinet after his Liberals won a surprise majority government in 2015, will announce Payette's appointment Thursday, the Globe and Mail newspaper and Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported.

The prime minister's office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

A Montreal native, Payette participated in space missions in 1999 and 2009 and worked with both the U.S. and Russian space agencies, according to her Canadian Space Agency biography. She was the first Canadian to board the International Space Station, in 1999, and flew on space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery.

The lion's share of the governor general's role is ceremonial, including the swearing-in of the prime minister, chief justices and cabinet ministers and formally signing legislation into law, but the job can also entail settling constitutional questions. The governor general is also nominally Canada's commander-in-chief.

Payette would be the fourth woman to serve in the role.

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    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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