Last Friday at the Manitoba Legislature was the official swearing-in ceremony for the province’s new lieutenant governor Janice Filmon. A new lieutenant governor is put in place about once every five years and Mrs. Filmon assumes the role from Philip Lee who began his tenure in 2009.

While the ceremony featured the usual ceremonial formalities that accompany such an event, the highlight was really the remarks by Mrs. Filmon herself. In her address she spoke about the need for Manitobans to take roles of leadership in our province and in particular the youth of our province. The speech not only demonstrated the very personable nature that many Manitobans have come to know Mrs. Filmon for, but also indicated that she intends to both reach out to and challenge Manitobans through her new role.

During the ceremony there was special mention made of the fact that Janice Filmon has been a tireless volunteer in Manitoba. Most recently she has been the chair of the Cancer Care Manitoba Foundation. It was also noted that she founded the Manitoba ALIVE program that teaches high school students to become leaders in the area of volunteerism.

Under our system of government, the lieutenant governor is the Queen’s representative in Manitoba and as such she will be offered many opportunities to meet with Manitobans and inspire a new generation of leaders. She made it clear that this will be one of her priorities.

The role of the lieutenant governor is a non-partisan one and like all past Manitoba lieutenant governor’s Mrs. Filmon will be required to serve in a non-political fashion. While most individuals who have been appointed to the position have at least some political background or affiliation, it is well accepted that upon becoming the lieutenant governor those are put aside. And it is a tradition that has been respected.

That is why it was so disappointing that the majority of NDP MLA’s decided not to come to the ceremony and instead left the government benches nearly empty. In fact, only 11 of 37 NDP MLA’s attended, leaving the other seats unoccupied. While the NDP have long used Gary Filmon, the province’s former Premier and the husband of Janice, as an excuse for all of their own failings in government, there is a time to put politics aside. This has been the case for all past lieutenant governor appointments where all political parties showed support for those appointed to the position.

By choosing to have the majority of their members not attend the ceremony, the NDP MLA’s showed disrespect to the office of lieutenant governor. Perhaps they thought they were making a statement of some kind, but it only reflected poorly on them. And in the end they missed an opportunity to rise above partisan politics. And they also missed an inspirational speech.