OTTAWA — For the last 20 months, John Gomery has been the calm eye in the centre of a political hurricane.

While his hearings into the sponsorship scandal sent storm waves lashing through the country's political structures, the 73-year-old justice stayed cool and collected.

A lifetime in the law and 23 years on the bench of the Quebec Superior Court gave him the foundations needed to keep such an inquiry on track and on time.

"The striking thing about it, to me, is that notwithstanding the hurricane force, he stood up pretty well,'' says Donald Story, a political science professor at the University of Regina.

"He was subject to a lot of criticism and, I think, held his ground very well.''

Barry Cooper, who teaches political science at the University of Calgary, says Gomery has done a good job.

"He has had to deal with an enormously politically charged set of issues and he has been both tough, and I'd say balanced, in just about everything that he's done.''

Gomery is a Montreal anglophone who was educated at McGill University. He was admitted to the bar in 1957 and joined a Montreal law firm, where he spent 25 years practising family law, commercial litigation and bankruptcy law.

In 1982, he was appointed a judge of the Quebec Superior Court.

Although little known outside Quebec, he made a name for himself in provincial legal circles, says Antonia Maioni, a political scientist at McGill.

"Before he made this leap into centre stage, he was already well known as a judge here in Quebec.

"He was someone who was very well respected, fluent in both languages, someone who was wont to speak his mind.''

As a judge, Gomery served as president of the Comite General des Juges de la Cour superieure du Quebec and president of its family law committee for 10 years.

He also worked with the Canadian Bar Association and Chambre des notaires du Quebec.

He even held the part-time chair of the Copyright Board of Canada until he quit to concentrate on the inquiry.

Along the way, he earned a reputation as a straight-shooter who kept a tight rein in his courtroom.

"He simply kept his persona going during the inquiry,'' said Maioni. "I don't think he changed the way he approaches the bench, the way he tries to get to the bottom of everything. He's a guy who likes to get at the truth.''

In 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin gave Gomery a unique opportunity to get at the truth behind the sponsorship scandal in an inquiry which Allan Tupper, a University of British Columbia professor, says was almost unprecedented.

"This is the most public and dramatic exposure of the pinnacles of public power in recent memory.''

In the months since he began his hearings, Gomery has kept his personal life well insulated from the televised fishbowl of the inquiry.

He is married to Pierrette Rayle, a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, and they have four children.

Something of a gentleman farmer, Gomery has a farm outside Montreal where he can unwind far from the microphones and legalisms of the hearing room.

The farm features a lush garden that was recently the subject of a feature story in a gardening magazine. He is also a member of the Montreal Badminton and Squash Club.

During his hearings, Gomery surprised some when he gave an on-the-record interview to a newspaper in which he mused about his hearings, called one witness "a charming scamp'' and referred to former prime minister Jean Chretien's habit of handing out monogrammed golf balls as "small-town cheap.''

The interview dropped him into hot water.

"I was very surprised by that interview,'' Tupper said. "I know there's a need for public communication, but I think many people were concerned about that.''

Chretien took his revenge when he testified later, pulling out a series of golf balls embossed with names such as Bill Clinton.

The reaction to that stunt varied.

"I think a lot of the response to Chretien's testimony was a reflection of what people thought of him,'' Cooper said.

"I'm sure that there were Chretien supporters who thought he was putting this upstart pipsqueak judge in his place.''

In his opening remarks, Gomery promised fairness to all. "No one should be railroaded.''

Cooper said he lived up to that. "My impression is that he listened to what these guys had to say (and) when he did intervene it was pretty even-handed.''

Gomery was also criticized mildly for the heavy accent which flavours his French.

Maioni dismissed that carping.

"Many judges of his generation who were anglophone came of age at a time when the language of the law in many law firms was English,'' she said.

"So he, like others of his generation, learned French later in life or had to be called upon to use their French later in life. So their French is grammatically correct but there is the heavy accent.

"He's not the only judge or lawyer in Quebec who's anglophone who sounds like that.''

When Gomery delivers his first report on Tuesday, his accent will be irrelevant. But his place in Canadian political history will be secure.