Cape Breton Post

Why not support a united Canada without the monarchy?

Not accidental that the great majority of nations are republics

- Jeffrey Cunningham Jeffrey is self-employed, lives in Vancouver and his dream is a united, strong and separatist-free Canadian republic.

I believe that Canada and England would fit seamlessly into the internatio­nal community without the monarchy.

It is not accidental that the great majority of nations are republics. It has been the result of humanity’s long groping in the dark, tribulatio­ns and sacrifices.

Its first and greatest benefit for Canada is that it will deliver a forceful disincenti­ve to the separatist movement in Quebec. Why? Because after the disposal of the monarchy everyone across the land will take the oath of allegiance to Canada itself. We will pledge allegiance to one another and that per se will awaken a great sense of commitment, responsibi­lity and belonging in all of us. Let us for the duration of time that it takes to read this article set aside the fact of the aboriginal­s existence on this continent from time immemorial and state another fact. One that states the French came here before the English, later on lost the colonial war to England, which unilateral­ly declared sovereignt­y over the entire land and dumped the monarchy on it.

Wars are not any different from sports in the sense that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and to take the oath of allegiance to the English monarch simply does not bring out the best in our French Canadians. It only perpetuate­s the feeling of a past loss. Who is anyone else to decide for our French Canadians how they should feel about taking the oath of allegiance to the English monarch?

As humanity’s experience has shown, a monarchy has never been a marketable system. Monarchies by their nature breed untold privileges based on someone’s birth and have been crumbling one after the other and, very fortunatel­y, it is impossible to convince a republic to convert its system to a monarchy.

What are we waiting for here in Canada? Are we waiting for the English to arouse from their coma to dispose of the monarchy before we decide to become a republic?

The monarchy has always worked for Canadian politician­s. One politician after the other has sought the highest office only for the sake of becoming the prime minister and at the end to collect a fat retirement paycheque.

We must salute Australia for moving in the direction of a republican system. Its former prime minister,

Julia Gillard, had the courage to make it her political platform during her campaign to end the monarchy and when the Queen visited Australia she had the courage of her conviction­s and delivered the message by standing tall and graceful and refusing to curtsy.

What a great and unforgetta­ble moment it was for a nation moving towards a republican system. Unfortunat­ely, a coterie of misguided and sexist politician­s did everything they could to bring Gillard down, but they cannot stop Australia from moving forward.

Time is marching on very fast and we must act decisively. We must stop once and for all falsely and complacent­ly pointing fingers at our French Canadians. Instead, we must train our eyes and our united efforts towards removing the actual cause, which is the monarchy and its divisive effect on our lives in Canada.

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