Schreyer, Edward
Identification Governor-general of Canada from
1979 to 1984
Born December 21, 1935; Beausejour, Manitoba
Schreyer was Canada’s ceremonial vice-regal head from
1979 to 1984, years that saw two general elections and the
patriation of Canada’s constitution.
Edward Schreyer, a Manitoban who had served as
premier of that province as a member of the leftist
New Democratic Party, was appointed governor-
general by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1979.
Unusually, Schreyer was not a member of Trudeau’s
own party, the Liberals, but he had given key support
to Trudeau during the 1970 crisis over invocation of
the War Measures Act against Québécois sovereign-
ists, and he was trusted by the prime minister. Tru-
deau’s party was defeated by the Conservatives in
1979, and Joe Clark began a brief tenure as prime
minister, but nine months later, a resurgent Trudeau
led his party to victory and regained the prime
ministry. As a result, Schreyer and Trudeau served
jointly during most of Schreyer’s tenure as governor-
general. Schreyer was the youngest governor-general
appointed up to that point, and was only the fifth to
be Canadian-born. He was the first governor-general
from Manitoba and the first of Ukrainian or German
descent.
Rideau Hall in Ottawa, where Schreyer and his
wife, Lily, resided during Schreyer’s term as governor-
general, is nominally the official Canadian residence
of the monarch of Canada—Queen Elizabeth II,
during Schreyer’s term—and Schreyer hosted
Queen Elizabeth twice, in 1982 and 1983. The first
visit was the most important, as the Queen was visit-
ing as part of the patriation of Canada’s constitution
as proclaimed by the Canada Act of 1982, spear-
headed by Prime Minister Trudeau. On April 17,
1982, the queen proclaimed the act, and Schreyer
thus became the first governor-general to preside
over a completely self-governing Canada.
Schreyer participated energetically in the cul-
tural role of the governor-general, which included
sponsoring awards and prizes for achievement in
the arts, sciences, and other areas of public life.
Among the writers who received the Governor Gen-
eral’s Award for Fiction during Schreyer’s term were
George Bowering, Mavis Gallant, and Guy Vander-
haeghe. Schreyer also concerned himself with the
culture of his own Ukrainian heritage, presiding
over the founding of the Center for Ukrainian Studies
at the University of Toronto in 1983.
Impact Schreyer was a pivotal figure in the transi-
tion of the governor-general’s office from a symbol
of authority and precedence to an expression of the
multiplicity of Canadian life. Schreyer, in standing
for the whole of Canada, made clear that the whole
of Canada was an abstract concept that could be sus-
tained only by the sum of its parts. This position par-
alleled a growing sense in the 1980’s that the nation-
alism of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which had replaced
colonial allegiance to Britain with a monolithic vi-
sion of Canadian identity, had run its course. Cana-
dians instead began to embrace a spectrum of na-
tional identities, while striving to find and subscribe
to fundamental values held in common. Schreyer’s
combination of energy, modesty, populism, and mod-
erate liberalism made him an apt representative of
Canada as it passed through the final years of the
Trudeau era.
Further Reading
Doern, Russell.Wednesdays Are Cabinet Days: A Per-
sonal Account of the Schreyer Administration. Winni-
peg, Man.: Queenston House, 1981.
McWhinney, Edward.The Governor General and the
Prime Ministers. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2005.
Nicholas BirnsSee also Aboriginal rights in Canada; Clark, Joe;
Education in Canada; Elections in Canada; Tru-
deau, Pierre.Schroeder, Pat
Identification U.S. representative from Colorado
from 1973 to 1997
Born July 30, 1940; Portland, Oregon
Schroeder was a liberal representative willing to advocate
causes that many of her Democratic male colleagues in the
House of Representatives refused to consider. As a member of
the House Committee on Armed Services, she regularly chal-
lenged the Reagan administration’s militar y policies. She
considered running for president in 1988.
Democrat Pat Schroeder was elected to Congress in- Instead of seeking a seat on a committee deal-
ing with women’s issues, she requested a seat on the
852 Schreyer, Edward The Eighties in America