It played for shock. It was Oprah Winfrey practically salivating at the opportunity to condemn the Brit royals for racism. She was trying to get the one-time duchess Meghan to say it. It was the lowest point in that overly long and trite interview with Meghan and Harry last Sunday.
The British monarchy can never compete with Hollywood. Oprah Winfrey and CBS had the Brits by the short hairs. The palace should not have tried to pit its Commonwealth show against Oprah. The Commonwealth had lost before the weak effort from London made it to Commonwealth airwaves. The former British colonies and protectorates were all watching Oprah.
It was another stone on the tomb of the monarchy. Canadians learn about the monarchy at a young age. We would be bussed to some point along a prescribed route to wave our little Union Jacks at a fleeting moment of a limousine with this or that royal flashing by. It was doubtful that the message got through to us that these people were better than us and we should show proper respect.
The modern approach is a one-time duchess whining about not being protected from the news media tramping her rose garden and waking her son from his afternoon nap. It would have come across better if she was not wearing a designer dress and five-inch stiletto heels.
It was just too bad that these people, because of their birth or marrying up, do not have the opportunities of us lower classes. It is only when you think of the tourist dollars flowing into the United Kingdom that you can see the value of that monarchy.
But Canada has no need for the farce. The monarchy is a drag from a long-gone era. It is nothing but a sham. It deals with the past, not the future. Canada is a faux constitutional monarchy, on the cheap.
We will never rid ourselves of this farce under any of our present political leaders. They are all too busy fighting each other for position to take a risky constitutional stance, that would just create more conflict with the provinces.
All we can do is to continue to point out the ridiculousness of our current position. We call it a constitutional monarchy—without a crown. We encourage the elitism of the senate, the failure of our political parties to innovate and the toadying of the news media. We are living on a bubble of bull shit.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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