The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson

Universally acknowledged as having revitalized the office of the Governor General, Ms. Clarkson's execution of her duties exceeded the visionary pledge she made when she became Governor General. She traveled the breadth and depth of the country, articulating a concept of compassionate citizenship, providing compelling insights into our shared history, and engaging Canadians in a spirited dialogue about the common good. In the process, she continued to promote Canadian culture, bilingualism and the arts with passion and imagination.

In her #1 best-selling autobiography Heart Matters, she chronicles an astonishing journey through triumph and turmoil. The always poised Clarkson reveals that life was not as smooth as it appeared, and with remarkable candour and poignancy, she reflects on the heartaches of her earlier years. Being published in the spring of 2009 is Clarkson's latest book, entitled Norman Bethune.

The work is a biography based on the life of Canadian physician and medical innovator Norman Bethune. Born in Hong Kong, Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee during the war in 1942 and settled with her family in Ottawa. She earned an Honours B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Toronto's Trinity College. She did post-graduate studies at the Sorbonne in France, becoming fluently bilingual.

Clarkson began her award-winning career at the CBC in 1965 and was recognized with successively more challenging assignments as writer, producer, director and host. After taking time to serve as Ontario's first Agent General in Paris, and president and publisher of McClelland & Stewart, she returned to her career at the CBC in 1988 becoming executive producer, host and writer for various programs including Adrienne Clarkson Presents.

Clarkson has been recognized for her outstanding contributions, including being honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992, and becoming Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order upon her appointment as Governor General in 1999.

National Post columnist John Fraser has observed that Clarkson has the ability, unique among our public officials, of making Canadians feel good about themselves and their country. This talent has most recently been recognized by the Blood Tribe of Alberta, who on July 25, 2006 adopted her as an honorary chief. On relinquishing the title of Governor General, she is proud to retain her new name of "Grandmother of Many Nations."

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  October 2011

  Room for All of Us

  In this exciting and revealing personal inquiry, former governor general Adrienne Clarkson explores the immigrant experience through the people who have helped transform Canada. The Canadians she befriends - whether an Ismaili doctor, a Doukhobor farmer, a Holocaust survivor, or a Vietnam War deserter - illustrate the changing idea of what it means to be Canadian and the kind of country we have created over the decades. Like her, many of the people who came did not have a real choice: they often arrived friendless and with a sense of loss. Yet their struggles and successes have enriched Canada immeasurably. What drove them to become the kind of people they have become? What would have happened to them if Canada had not taken them in? What have they added to our national life us as we go forward in the twenty-first century?

  Written with humour, insight and personal revelation, Room for All of Us is a tale of many destinies. Like W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants, Clarkson’s book offers a richly textured, intimate and unforgettable portrait of a changing country and its people.

  
  
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  March 2009

  Norman Bethune

  Honoured as a hero in China, Ontario-born Norman Bethune was a surgeon, medical innovator, and charismatic political activist who deployed his skills on the battlefields of Spain and China in the 1930s. His prodigious energy included inventing surgical instruments, mobile blood-transfusion units, teaching, and advocating for social justice at home and abroad. Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese Canadian, has always been fascinated by the dynamic man who married his social conscience to his medical mission.

  
  
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  January 2007

  Heart Matters

  Heart Matters is more than a public life remembered. It chronicles an astonishing journey through triumph and turmoil. The always poised Clarkson reveals that life was not as smooth as it appeared, and with remarkable candour and poignancy, she reflects on the heartaches of her earlier years—her beautiful but troubled mother, the death of an infant, a divorce, and the estrangement from her two daughters and their later reunion. Insightful and inspiring, Heart Matters is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary Canadian.