Governor General David Johnston made Yukon history Wednesday by addressing members of the legislative assembly – the first time a governor general has spoken inside the chamber.

Johnston's remarks were a pat on the back for a territory he first visited 20 years ago, as chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. The round table met in Whitehorse and Haines Junction, said Johnston, adding that based on the meetings and subsequent recommendations, "the test of sustainable development (was) placed in all federal public legislation thereafter.

"The concept of sustainable development, in a sense, had its birth right here in Yukon,” Johnston told legislators and visitors in the gallery. "I can't think of a more appropriate place for something like sustainable development to have its birth.”

To illustrate the importance of sustainable development, Johnston offered a story about the farm he and his wife own in a region largely populated by Mennonite farmers near Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.

"They are horse and buggy people; they use tractors on their land, but they conduct themselves by horse and buggy,” said Johnston. "They have a wonderful tradition of barn raising. Whenever a newcomer moves into the area, all the neighbours gather round and build a barn. If a barn burns down, the neighbours gather to help a neighbour rebuild it.”

When his wife Sharon was trying to place a value on a horse barn for insurance purposes, she asked their neighbour Edgar Chance what he thought.

"‘If it burns down, we'd replace it. That's what neighbours do,'” was Chance's response.

And the story provided a nice segue from Johnston's vision for Canada, A Smart and Caring Nation: A Call to Service, outlined in his installation speech, in which Johnston placed great importance on encouraging philanthropy and volunteerism.

The governor general, who was joined in the Yukon legislature by his wife, also lauded the territory's method for governing itself as an example for others.

"Taking something from the old, taking something from different traditions, melding together different cultures, different customs, different practices, in establishing a framework of law and custom that works so that people can build permanent, prosperous, happy and healthy communities,” Johnston said. "(It)'s something that I think is truly a model for the rest of the country and for the entire world.”

Why Johnston believes the Yukon's combination of a legislature with regional representation by 18 MLAs, 14 First Nation governments and a half-dozen mayors and councils to govern fewer than 35,000 people is worthy of emulation, is not clear. The governor general made himself available for just one radio interview, but otherwise took no questions from the media, who were given access to record Johnston's comings and goings, as well as his speech for the state dinner, delivered at the Yukon Convention Centre Wednesday evening.

At the dinner, attended by approximately 350 invited guests who included elected officials, high-level bureaucrats, First Nation chiefs and Order of Canada members, Johnston reiterated compliments he bestowed earlier in the day at the legislature.

While Johnston's office at Rideau Hall, the governor general's residence in Ottawa, billed his remarks in the legislature as "informal” and the dinner speech, a "formal address”, Johnston peppered his latter remarks with enough humourous anecdotes to strip any pretense of formality.

When he was named vice-chancellor and president of Montreal's McGill University in 1979, Johnston recalled being asked to provide "a short, warm and inspiring” acceptance speech.

"Stand up to speak, speak to be heard and sit down to be appreciated,” is how Johnston described the oratorical approach he forged on the basis of that request.

Once in charge of McGill, Johnston said the university was reeling from what he called "draconian budget cuts” to post-secondary institutions in the late 1970s. So an idea to access public funds through employing electricity-based initiatives was executed.

At the time, Quebec's incredible hydro infrastructure was producing huge electricity surpluses – the impetus for offering public largesse to utilize the excess power – so the university decided to rid itself of paper hand towels dispensers and install electric hand-dryers.

When the work was completed, Johnston said he was given a tour of the upgrades to university lavatories, and much to his amusement, somebody had personalized one of the hand dryers.

"Already, within the first few days, some graffiti had been inscribed just above the depressor button, and it read, ‘press this button for a short, warm, inspiring message from your president,'” Johnson recalled, eliciting much laughter and applause.

Johnston also spoke of his voracious reading appetite – he counts James Michener among his favourite authors and that he's read every Michener tome – and because of this he's affectionately called "Grandpa Book” by his grandchildren.

After asking one of his granddaughters to dance for him at a family gathering, she asked how much he would pay her.

"Always looking for a teaching moment, I said, ‘I love you, you love Grandpa Book, so why don't you dance for love?” Johnston said, to which she replied, "‘Grandpa Book, for love, you can dance for yourself.'”

Johnston, an academic and author, assumed his role as governor general on Oct. 1, 2010, and his expertise in constitutional law is considered to be a major factor in his appointment.

Johnston's notable career as an academic and author include a five-year deanship of the University of Western Ontario Law School in the late 1970s, before he was named vice-chancellor of McGill University, a role he held until 1994. Before being named governor general, Johnston was the president of Waterloo University.

In addition to his academic work, Johnston is a Companion in the Order of Canada and a staunch federalist, as expressed in 1995's If Quebec Goes: The Real Cost of Separation, a book he co-wrote.

Johnston also was the co-chair of the Montreal No Committee during the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence.

Continuing their three-day tour of the Yukon, today the governor general and his wife travel to Dawson City where they will take in Hockey Day In Canada and Yukon Quest events before travelling to Old Crow on Friday. There, Johnston and his wife will meet with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation's chief, councillors, elders and community members.