Editorial on Canada as a monarchy,
The question of Canada’s status as a monarchy is a pot simmering on the back of the stove. Every royal visit brings the pot to a boil. Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and their two children land on Vancouver Island today to begin a week-long visit to B.C. and the Yukon, and the pot has been boiling for a couple of weeks in anticipation of their arrival.
Is Canada well-served by the monarchy or should we toss out the royals and go it alone? Ardent monarchists and fervid anti-monarchists have no hesitation in offering opposing answers, but most Canadians are caught somewhere in the middle.
Support for the monarchy goes up on special occasions, such as the Queen’s Jubilee, a royal wedding or a birth in the Royal Family. It dips when members of the extended Royal Family are caught behaving badly.
It’s a question deeply fraught with emotion — people can get teary-eyed about ties to Mother England and the dear old Queen, just as others can get quite worked up about the indignity of having to swear allegiance to a foreign monarch or tug forelocks before someone who occupies a position simply because of birth.
Much of the support for the monarchy depends on the Queen herself, who has served so selflessly, and with incomparable grace and wisdom. Enthusiasm for the monarchy wanes considerably when Prince Charles is brought into the picture.
An Angus Reid poll conducted in April in connection with the Queen’s 90th birthday suggests that 64 per cent of Canadians favour continuing to recognize Elizabeth as Canada’s monarch, but only 46 per cent support the idea of recognizing Charles as king. A 2015 poll in Britain found even less support for Charles — only 43 per cent said they wanted him to be king.
Emotions and polls aside, the monarchy is fact of life for Canada that cannot easily be dislodged.
“It’s pointless to debate, in a way, since the monarchy isn’t going anywhere,” writes Andrew Coyne in a Canadian Encyclopedia essay. “It isn’t only that the position of the Queen is embedded in the Constitution, irrevocably — or the next thing to it, given the requirement of provincial unanimity. It is that the Crown, as an institution, is woven into every line of our constitutional order. It isn’t just some little old lady in London or a middle-aged gent who talks to plants. It is, as the political scientist David Smith has observed, ‘the organizing principle of Canadian government,’ whose ‘pervasive influence … reaches into every area of government activity in all jurisdictions.’
“The Crown principle is at the root of all executive power. It is the foundation stone of our system of laws, our courts and legislatures: the ‘Queen in Parliament,’ embodying the Crown, Commons and Senate. It is the common fount of federal and provincial sovereignties.”
The Queen, says Coyne, personifies our system of laws and government and “humbles the pretensions of democratic politicians, in possession of their temporary majorities. As it has been said, when the prime minister bows before the Queen, he bows before us. That’s of more than symbolic value.
“To do away with the Crown, to replace it with a republic would require nothing less than a revolution.”
That revolution would require the remaking of Canada, and perhaps we should head in that direction, but not hastily. The monarchy is a solid pillar amid the shifting sands of public opinion and political fortune. We should not remove it until we have something equally solid to replace it.
Meanwhile, for those so inclined, enjoy the royal visit. It’s a bright occasion amid much darkness.