Monarchists vs. republicans
Re: Canada, the monarchy and republican impulse, Colby Cosh, Dec. 29
As a co- founder of Canada’s republican movement, I had the opportunity a few years ago to meet with several members of the Australian Republican Movement’s executive when they visited Canada. We gleaned a lot of advice in those meetings, but one piece that stuck with me was a warning about the wrath we were about to unleash from monarchists. “It’ ll be polite at first,” they said, “but you’ll know you’re making progress when the monarchist attacks get ugly and dirty.”
Well, finally, it seems that Colby Cosh is the one who’s proven them right. All it took was one opinion poll showing a majority wanting to ditch the monarchy, and with hair starting to grow on his hands and mouth frothing, the baying at the moon has begun.
OK, fine. We know some are passionate about keeping the monarchy. But having differences without publicly hurling despicable insults is one of the great things about being Canadian. Saying our belief in having our own resident Canadian as head of state is a “pathology” and a “disorder” is not just vile and mean-spirited, it’s downright un- Canadian.
Cosh doesn’t even get the facts straight. In true monarchist ignorance, Cosh predictably implies that the only alternative to the monarchy is “creeping, phoney Americanism,” omitting of course, the reality that our group advocates only one thing: making the governor general the official, rather than acting, head of state. That’s it. Not an American- style system — but a parliamentary republic virtually identical in function to what we have now — only with a resident Canadian at its apex.
Nothing else needs to change. That includes our monarchist history, parliamentary traditions, legal system, even royal institutions — all of which exist in republics around the world — both within and outside The Commonwealth.
Truth is; popularity of the royals will come and go. It doesn’t matter; we don’t care. These popularity contest polls only confirm what we already know anyway; that most Canadians want to choose a head of state, and since they actually have a preference (a concept alien to monarchical succession) proves that collectively, we’re republican at heart. Tom Freda, National Director Citizens for a Canadian Republic, Toronto