At least two premiers think that incoming Governor General Michaelle Jean should tell Canadians her views on Quebec sovereignty and how she voted in the 1995 referendum.

"Did she vote yes or not?'' New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord wondered Friday.

"Obviously the Governor General should be Canadian and should be someone who believes in Canada,'' he said at the annual meeting of the country's premiers in Banff, Alta.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell agreed that Jean should explain her feelings on a united Canada.

"I know the Governor General will stand for Canada,'' said Campbell. "The Governor General is representing the Queen and we have a country that we're building a future with that's unified.''

Their remarks follow an article in a Quebec sovereigntist publication that says that Jean's husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, was friendly with former FLQ militants.

Novelist René Boulanger, a long-time separatist who wrote the article, also called Lafond "a declared sovereigntist."

"In close circles, we always considered him one of ours," he wrote in the September issue of Le Quebecois.

While Boulanger didn't say that Jean herself is in favour of Quebec separation, he said: "she's been soaking for ages in the sovereigntist atmosphere that characterizes her intellectual circle."

Boulanger conceded that he hadn't spoken about politics with Jean or Lafond for several years, and doesn't know where they currently stand on the national-unity question.

He too challenged Jean to announce how she voted in the 1995 Quebec referendum.

But Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams says the political views of a spouse of a public figure are no one's business, just as they aren't in his family.

"Certainly, I'm the one in politics. I'm the one who has a public profile. When my wife is involved in anything is nobody's business,'' Williams said.

But Lord wonders whether Prime Minister Paul Martin did a proper background check on Jean before he decided to announce that she would succeed Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.

"I hope he did the screening that was required and that Mme. Jean believes in Canada.''

On Thursday, Transport Minister Jean Lapierre insisted that "Madame Jean is not a sovereigntist.''

Neither Jean nor Lafond have spoken publicly since Jean's appointment was announced earlier this month.

Lafond met a number of former FLQ members when he worked on the 1994 National Film Board documentary, La Liberte en colere.

He co-wrote the film with Francis Simard, another FLQ member who was convicted for his role in killing provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte during the 1970 October Crisis.

On Thursday, Scott Reid, a Martin spokesperson, said Jean and Lafond are the victims of a smear campaign.

"To suggest that Mr. Lafond's documentary on the FLQ crisis makes him a separatist sympathizer is to suggest that Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War makes him a Confederate secessionist,'' Reid said. "It's absurd."

Jean succeeds Clarkson as Governor General on Sept. 27, 2005.