I suppose one could construct Madame Clarkson's very active involvement in these last few days and her coming to the ceremony as wanting to support the office and the institution in the face of some controversy that's been around Madame Jean, and a desire to be visible in support of her,

It's a symbolic act on her part recognizing that the person who represents the Queen as the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces doesn't want to be in a position where anyone might say she has divided loyalties. I don't believe for a second she would have had them, but symbols are important.

I'm happy the queen will be here when the government may fall. It's a great civics lesson.

I don't know the truth, ... I want to hear it from her lips.

It was only early the next morning that I found out she had come to the service and left from her reception to go to her father's deathbed.

I think her overwhelming legacy is one of having made the office of Governor General visible and engaged in a way that it certainly hadn't been in at least a generation, if not more.