Elizabeth Dowdeswell

Violet Elizabeth Dowdeswell OC OOnt (née Patton, born November 9, 1944) is the current Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the 29th since Canadian Confederation. She is the representative of the Queen in Right of Ontario.

Dowdeswell (née Patton) was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on November 9, 1944, and moved with her family to Canada in 1947, settling in rural Saskatchewan. Her father Desmond Granville Patton (1920-2008) was a United Church of Canada minister. Dowdeswell married at a young age but soon divorced. She attended the University of Saskatchewan and Utah State University and later became a teacher and university lecturer.

Dowdeswell left teaching and entered public service, serving in Saskatchewan as deputy minister of culture and youth during the New Democratic Party government of Allan Blakeney, but was dismissed, along with other deputy ministers, after the Progressive Conservative government of Grant Devine took power in 1982.

She served in the federal public service in the 1980s, serving at one point as assistant deputy minister at Environment Canada with responsibility for the Atmospheric Environment Service and negotiating the Framework Convention on Climate Change. She also led a public inquiry into Canada’s unemployment benefits program and federal water policy.

In 1992, Dowdeswell was unanimously elected to lead the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, serving there until 1998 at the rank of Under-Secretary-General.

From 1998 to 2010, she was an adjunct professor at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health at the University of Toronto, while also serving as founding president and CEO of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. From 2010 until her appointment at Lieutenant Governor, she was the president and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies.

Dowdeswell was appointed Lieutenant Governor by Governor General David Johnston on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who selected Dowdeswell from a shortlist devised by the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments. On September 23, 2014, she was sworn in during a ceremony held at Queen's Park in Toronto, during which she addressed members of the Ontario Cabinet, Members of Provincial Parliament, and other guests. She is the third woman to serve the position, following Pauline Mills McGibbon and Hilary Weston.

Breaking with tradition, Dowdeswell declared in her installation address that she would not immediately espouse a particular area of focus during her mandate as Lieutenant Governor. Instead, she set out to engage the people of Ontario, listening to their concerns and ideas. In the time since her installation, she had said that the idea of Ontario in the world, as well as the interconnected themes of sustainability—environmental stewardship, inclusive economic prosperity and innovation, and social and cultural inclusion—have resonated with Ontarians. In addition, Dowdeswell has taken to sharing what she hears during her visits around Ontario, dubbing herself "Storyteller-in-Chief".

In April 2016, Dowdeswell reported having undertaken 1,066 official engagements during the first 18 months of her mandate, an average of 711 per year.

On September 12, 2016, Dowdeswell read a Speech from the Throne to open the 2nd session of the 41st Parliament of Ontario. It was her first Throne Speech since taking office in September 2014.

Titles

• November 9, 1944 – September 23, 2014: Miss/Ms. Elizabeth Patton
• September 23, 2014 – : Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario

As Lieutenant Governor, Dowdeswell is entitled to be styled Her Honour while in office and The Honourable for life.

Honours

Ribbon bar of Elizabeth Dowdeswell

• May 24, 2012: Officer of the Order of Canada (OC)
• November 26, 2014: Dame of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem
  • November 26, 2014 – : Vice Prior of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (while in office)
• September 23, 2014: Member of the Order of Ontario (OOnt)
  • September 23, 2014 – : Chancellor of the Order of Ontario (while in office)

• June 18, 2012: Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

• September 23, 2014 – : Colonel of the Regiment of The Queen's York Rangers (while in office)
• September 23, 2014: Honorary Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police

Elizabeth Dowdeswell has received several honorary degrees from various Universities in Canada and Europe. These include:

Jurisdiction	Date	School	Degree
Saskatchewan	May 25, 1994	University of Saskatchewan	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
Nova Scotia	1998	Mount Saint Vincent University	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)
Ontario	Spring 1999	York University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)
British Columbia	October 22, 1999	Royal Roads University
Saskatchewan	Spring 2001	University of Regina
Ontario	2013	University of Ontario Institute of Technology	Doctor of Science (D.Sc)
Ontario	June 9, 2015	University of Western Ontario	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)