In today’s multicultural Canada, we have quite properly come to celebrate the story of the recent immigrant who has overcome adversity and prejudice to establish a life here—and who, in the course of so doing, has made ours a better country. But sitting alongside this modern story of Canadian success is an older-fashioned one; one that to some has a certain corniness about it—even an aspect of Horatio Alger about it—but one that is no less inspiring for that.

These competing visions of Canadian success can be seen in the story of our last three vice-regal appointments. Mrs Clarkson and Mme Jean both exemplify the “newer” version of Canadian success. Our newest appointee to the office of Governor General represents the latter.

David Johnston was born a northerner. He was born in Sudbury, and he grew up and did his schooling in Sault Ste Marie. But though he retains a certain northern sensibility and pragmatism, his subsequent career has been lived entirely away from his origins. He went to Harvard in 1959—surely the only boy from the Soo in his class!—where he embarked upon the most glittering of academic careers. He was on the dean’s honour list in each of his four years at Harvard, and he graduated magna cum laude in 1963 (after writing an honours thesis appropriately entitled for the Diefenbaker era, “The Development and Control of Atomic Energy by the Canadian Government 1941-1963). But David Johnston was far from a swot. He was captain of the Harvard varsity hockey team—and for two of which, was an All-American. Indeed, it was his time on the Harvard hockey team that led to what, for people outside universities, is David’s principal claim to fame. One of his training partners was Erich Segal. When Segal wrote his novel, Love Story, he included a character named Davey as captain of the hockey team. Popular wisdom is that Davey is based completely on David Johnston.

After Harvard, David Johnston went to Cambridge to read Law (and also to be captain of the hockey team). He graduated LLB with Honours in 1965, after which he earned a second LLB at Queen’s in 1966. He then joined the faculty at Queen’s, transferring to the University of Toronto two years later. In 1974, at the unusually young age of 32, he was appointed Dean of Law at the University of Western Ontario. In 1979, he was made Principal at McGill, in which office he served until 1994. After a few years as a “regular” faculty member at McGill (though such an adjective could never properly describe David Johnston), in 1999 he was appointed President of the University of Waterloo, where he serves now. In 1988, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 1997, his appointment was upgraded to Companion. He really is one of the giants of Canadian higher education in the modern era, and he has served as mentor to many more of us who occupy leadership roles than he can possibly appreciate.

So much for the formal résumé; it is beyond ordinary by any measure. But what makes David Johnston’s story even more extraordinary is that none of his accomplishments were accompanied by cant or cunning. Quite to the contrary! Anyone who has worked with him will tell you that David Johnston is a paragon of honour and virtue and honesty and loyalty and dutifulness and every other admirable characteristic known to man. Moreover, his energy is prodigious. He is the only person I have ever met who can work on five briefs at once—and yet be master of each. He has a natural grace and ease of manner that puts everyone at ease, and that allows him to keep confidence with everyone from the most shy and awkward first year student to the most accomplished and overbearing captain of industry. To the extent that in its present-day conception, the office of Governor General is meant to remind us of what we could all accomplish if we were better Canadians, it is hard to imagine a more fitting occupant of Rideau Hall than David Johnston.

Dr Ian Holloway, CD, QC is the Dean of Law at the University of Western Ontario.