The departure of a popular incumbent leads the country to ponder its monarchy

WANTED: Stand-in for the Queen of Canada able to handle endless ceremonial duties, some in full military regalia, and the occasional constitutional crisis. Ability to stand up to stroppy politicians a requirement. Fluency in English and French preferred. Perks include audiences with the queen, constant travel and residence in the palatial 170-room Rideau Hall estate in Ottawa. Ability to smile while eating raw seal meat an asset. Only Canadians need apply.

Were Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, to place an honest ad for the post of governor general, which falls vacant in September, it might read like the one above. The incumbent, Michaëlle Jean, a Haitian immigrant and former journalist, is set to depart after completing the traditional five-year stint in the job. Mr Harper is expected to name her successor in time for Queen Elizabeth II (who serves as head of state of 15 countries in addition to the United Kingdom) to formally appoint the nominee during her trip to Canada from June 28th to July 6th. This has prompted a new round of reflection about the country’s ties to its former colonial parent.

The British monarch retained significant political influence in Canada until 1947, when King George VI transferred his powers to the governor general, who serves as the sovereign’s representative. Five years later, the last British noble to hold the position gave way to a Canadian. Since then, the governor general has primarily had ceremonial duties, like reviewing the troops as commander-in-chief, granting royal assent to bills and reading a speech from the throne at the start of each new parliament. Ms Jean has humanised the traditionally imperious post by shedding public tears after an earthquake devastated her native country of Haiti, and tucking into an Inuit meal of raw seal meat (thumbing her nose at Europe’s anti-seal-hunt lobby in the process).

However, because Canada has had a minority government since 2004, Ms Jean has also had occasion to take politically significant decisions, unlike her predecessors. Even though she was chosen by Mr Harper's Liberal predecessor, she twice used her prerogative to support the prime minister. In 2008, she approved his request to call an election, contradicting a law setting fixed terms. That same year, she allowed him to suspend Parliament, at a time when his Conservative Party was in danger of losing a no-confidence vote.

Ms Jean’s unexpected protagonism has reinforced calls for a broader and more democratic process to choose the governor general. However, the results of online polling suggest that submitting the newly powerful post to a vote could be treacherous. The people’s favourite seems to be William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series: he took 43% of the votes in a 13-candidate field in one survey, and 46,000 people have joined a Facebook group urging his selection. Other popular contenders include Rick Hansen, an athlete who travelled 40,000 km (25,000 miles) in his wheelchair to raise money for charity, and Leonard Cohen, a singer.

The other option would be to scrap the governor generalship altogether—and with it, one of the last remaining formal vestiges of Canada’s colonial past. Unlike in Australia, where an active republican movement pushed for a referendum in 1999 to cut ties to the British monarchy, the issue has only tended to surface in Canada during royal visits. But thanks in part to immigration, which has reduced the share of the urban population with British ancestry to a minority, most Canadians now see the country’s link to the queen as archaic—at least among those who know she is the head of state (three-quarters don’t). The real test will come once Elizabeth, who is highly respected by Canadians, gives way to her son Prince Charles, who is not.