New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor reflects on ups and downs of 2018

Challenging year for N.B. lieutenant-governor A cancer diagnosis and rare use of constitutional powers after election were taxing for Jocelyne Roy Vienneau. Laura Brown reports.

Many see the lieutenant-governor as a ceremonial appointment, but this year, we saw New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor perform another role they are not often asked to do: ensure a stable government is in place.

Jocelyne Roy Vienneau’s first three years on the job were largely uneventful and filled with the type of appearances befitting one of the province's most prestigious appointments.

But 2018 threw Roy Vienneau a curveball.

“It was a very challenging year because of my health, of course, that's the main thing, but also because we had some ups and downs,” Roy Vienneau said.

This past year saw some of the worst flooding in recent memory as thousands of people were pushed from their homes by an unforgiving St. John River and then another loss.

Then, there was a mass shooting that took the lives of four people including two police officers.

For much of that time, Roy Vienneau was fighting her own personal battle:

“I was diagnosed with cancer in May, I had the surgery late in June and then started my chemo treatment in September, so it was a challenge for me but the good thing is, I responded very well to the treatment so far, so,” Roy Vienneau said. “I'm one of the lucky ones.”

Her husband Ronald Vienneau says he was deeply touched by the kindness of strangers.

“It was overwhelming,” he said. “The amount of support, the amount of cards, the support that she got from people we don't even know.”

Despite the diagnosis, she maintained a gruelling schedule by travelling to China on a trade mission and going to Washington to return a piece of American history, a 200-year-old U.S. Navy captain’s desk that ended up at Government House in Fredericton.

She also welcomed other lieutenant governors from all over Canada for a conference with the governor general in June, where -- call it luck or foreshadowing -- they discussed minority governments.

“So, we were ready for what happened,” Roy Vienneau said. “We did not have that specific scenario that we had for the election, but we were quite close to it, so we knew exactly what to do.”

The election was both a highlight and a learning experience.

The Liberals finished one seat behind the Progressive Conservatives and neither could command enough seats to form a majority.

In the end, the Liberals went down to defeat over their throne speech and Blaine Higgs became premier.

Roy Vienneau was in the middle of it all, which is not at all what she expected when she started the role in 2014.

“I feel fortunate to have been able to live that experience,” she said.

While politicians may have seen it as an obstacle, Roy Vienneau saw it as an opportunity.

The election became a window into her world; a chance to see a lieutenant-governor in action.

“People see a lot of me, but they see me in the very ceremonial role,” Roy Vienneau said. “They don't know exactly the constitutional role that I have and this is the example, to ensure a good government is in place.”

That job is supposed to fall to someone else very soon.

Her five-year mandate ends in the fall, just two days before the federal election.

Her husband wonders if they will choose the next lieutenant governor before or after the next federal election.

Roy Vienneau thinks it will be before.

“They will ask me to extend a little bit because of the federal election,” she said, and that’s something that she would be OK with.

A gesture from a woman who knows first-hand, that governments, like life itself, can change in a heartbeat.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.