A news story the other day was about three potential Canadian citizens who could not understand why they should swear allegiance to the Queen. They want to become citizens but do not understand why a democratic country would even have royalty. They were appalled that Canada would continue such a silly custom into the 21st Century. They were also puzzled that people born here could be Canadian citizens and never need to pledge allegiance to royalty. Why then are we discriminating against our new citizens?
It does give you pause. Unless you join the military or take some office that requires an Oath of Allegiance, Canadians are quite at liberty to ignore the Queen and her heirs. In fact, most Canadians can go through a life-time without giving a damn. And they do.
What Canadians lack is an honest dialogue over who might replace the Queen as Canada’s head of state. Sure, there was a bit of an argument in parliament over Canada having its own flag but once the decision was made for the Maple Leaf Flag, Canadians got in line to support it. Sure there are some funny people who still like the old ensign but they have learned to stay quiet about it.
There was even less argument about making some minor changes to O Canada and making it our national anthem. You have to agree that by far the majority of Canadians prefer O Canada to God Save the Queen. In fact, today, God Save the Queen stirs little in Canadians other than impatience. And when Charlie takes over from his mommy, there will likely be outright booing of God Save the King!
Involving Canadians in a process of change to replace the monarchy will take time. It is hardly going to be a fast and easy process. The greatest danger is of provincial politicians using honest attempts at change as an opportunity for them to hold out on approvals for political advantage. The best way to overcome this is to go directly to the people with an elected constituent assembly and then a national referendum. This would override any provincial objections to the outcome.
And eventually we will have the kind of country we want that can leave the past behind us and take us into the future.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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