God save Canada’s irrelevant monarch
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh questions the “relevance” of the Queen in Canada.
Perhaps when it comes to the relevance of a head of state, you ought to be careful what you wish for.
I’m thinking that after viewing federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s recent CTV appearance, in which he outed himself as a republican. Not as a supporter of the American GOP (he clarified), but as an anti-monarchist when it comes to Canada.
“I don’t see the relevance of it,” he said of the monarchy, in response to a direct question about it that he may not have expected to hear (he was discussing the expenses of former governors general at the time).
He has a point. It has always been kind of strange that our head of state doesn’t even live here. And that reigning sovereign over our country isn’t even her full-time job, but more of a telecommuting side-hustle from her main gig as ruler of the United Kingdom, head of the Commonwealth, defender of the faith and so on and so forth beyond the seas and etc. She only occasionally comes by for a visit — the last one more than eight years ago now.
And though Singh didn’t mention it, the whole inherited-power, rigidly class-structured, colonialist system she and her family’s position represent is kind of revolting, a holdover from a bizarre predemocratic time in history. In theory, there’s a lot to be said for leaving all that behind.
But then there’s her virtue, which Singh put his finger on nicely. She’s irrelevant. Mostly.
Despite the formal authorities she technically has, the Queen’s actual practical job description as Canadian monarch is pretty light. She looks regal on the money, lends her name to our court cases, signs
some paperwork we send along. She and her family host fabulous wedding parties every now and again that keep the Canadian magazine Very-SpecialIssue-Featuring-100-Pages-of-Glorious-Photos industry alive.
Entertaining? Sometimes. Useful? In a way. Annoying? Sure, in some ways. But relevant? Nah. But when you consider the nearest example of a functioning republic we have at hand — our giant neighbour to the south — the desirability of a “relevant” leader seems dubious. I mean there’s Donald Trump, every bit the born aristocrat the Queen is, with even more absurdly gilded pageantry, but with all the dangerous, disastrous relevance she lacks.
Say what you will about the Queen, but she isn’t deploying a giant military force to repel a walking caravan of unarmed, hungry, desperate refugees. She hasn’t separated children from their parents and locked them up indefinitely without charge (and left fouryear-olds to represent themselves in court).
She isn’t out there every day whipping up resentment and anger in big rallies intended as monuments to her own ego, telling lie after twisted lie until it becomes so unremarkable that insisting on the truth seems quaint, putting out racist ads and messages and quite possibly inspiring mass murderers in the process.
And so on. You don’t need me to remind you of the rest of the merciless, creeping-authoritarian, anti-reason record of the U.S. president.
The democratically elected U. S. president, it bears adding. Because if he is all too urgently relevant, in a bad way, it is because he has authority and legitima- cy granted to him by virtue of his election to that office. His office has actual — as opposed to symbolic — executive authority, which comes with a popular mandate.
It’s enough to make a toothless figurehead look good.
The point is, Canada seems to function just fine without a functioning executive branch. And at least at the moment, glancing south, that seems like something to be thankful for.
Sing it: God save our absent Queen, Our ornamental Queen, God save the Queeeeeeen. Regal anaaaaaaaaachronism Mostly for symmmmmmbolism Our quaint constitutional mechanism God save the Queen I should point out that Singh’s appearance on CTV gave the impression that his republicanism is more of an attitude than an active agenda: changing the constitutional structure of Canada isn’t a priority for him. He’s open to hearing from Canadians on it, but, “We’ve got a democracy and we’re proud of our democracy and I think that’s what most Canadians think is important and I think we should focus on that.”
I think I agree, more or less, if I understand him right. Objecting to the monarchy in principle, feeling it works pretty good for us in practice, not in any hurry to try fixing what isn’t really broken.
Irrelevant? Yes. Blessedly so.