Prince had keen sense of duty, and a lack of tact
Today the world will witness the funeral of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. He died a couple of months short of the century mark, so he lived a long and interesting life.
He served in the navy during the Second World War, and if he had not met and married Elizabeth, he would have continued with his promising naval career.
He was an alpha male who chafed in the position of consort to the Queen. His bouts of independence and outrageous comments were treated as just a good old boy speaking out, but for those who suffered the brunt of his remark, it was anything but.
He had the unfortunate bad habit of speaking his mind. He was a reflection of the British upper class and he would say out loud what they were thinking.
He asked some Aboriginal people in Australia if they still threw spears at each other. He once asked a person in the Grand Cayman Islands if they were descended from pirates. He couldn't even resist insulting people from the British Isles when he asked a Scottish driving instructor how they kept the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test.
Once while near Edinburgh in Scotland, he remarked that a fuse box looked like it was installed by an Indian. He later tried to clear it up by saying that he meant to say cowboy, which only made it worse.
The palace or the prime minister would be charged with the duty to issue an explanation or an apology. In the end, he was out of step with the times and political correctness was not a part of his vocabulary.
Indigenous peoples in Canada have a long-standing relationship with the Crown that goes back to the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
Prince Philip was an environmentalist before it became fashionable.
It created the constitutional framework for the negotiation of treaties with the Indigenous peoples who held title to North America.
It's been called the Indian Magna Carta, but it was a proclamation from the Crown to rein in the Americans who were advancing westward without proper recognition of the original people. When King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215, the nobles told him that either his signature or his blood would be on the document and the choice was his. But I digress.
In any event, whenever the royals make a visit to Canada a few reserves are thrown into the mix to recognize our special relationship with the Crown. In the course of my work, I have met Princess Margaret, Princess Anne and Prince Charles. We engaged in shallow banter and nothing more.
In Alberta, the Kainai Nation gave Prince Charles a beautiful pinto pony. Not to be outdone, the Nakota Nation gave him a buffalo. I have no idea what happened to either animal.
In the 1970s, Manitoba First Nations leader Dave Courchene wanted to give a message to the Queen during her visit to the province. The Department of Indian Affairs stepped in and edited his remarks and then provided a reply for the Queen.
Jean Chretien was minister of Indian Affairs at the time and the encounter was known as the Chretien monologue. The Queen is only a constitutional head of state and any appeal to her to improve our lot is meaningless except for the media attention it provides. Over the years our leaders have become quite adept at embarrassing Canada on the international stage.
While the media tended to focus on Prince Philip's gaffes, he was widely admired by Indigenous people for his support of environmental causes. Prince Philip was an environmentalist before it became fashionable. In 1982, for example, he warned about the possibility of global warming in the future. I can imagine that he was quite surprised by the speed at which it developed.
To quote Robbie Burns, “a man's a man for a' that.” The Prince had a sense of duty that lasted throughout his long life and he dutifully remained two steps behind the Queen. He will be remembered for his candour and lack of tact, but he will also be remembered as the Queen's best friend and, to quote her, “her rock and stay.”