Always looking for material pro or con the royals, there was a web site discovered the other day that looked like a goldmine of liberal thought on Canada’s relationship with the monarchy. The immediate disappointment was that the last posting was over a year ago. Regrettably the search was in the Liberal Party of Canada website. If any party needs to take a clear stand on Canada and the royals, it should be the Liberals.
But it’s another “Ho-hum, who cares?” news day for the rusty, retro royals. Too bad Prince Harry had to abandon his jog or ski or whatever to the South Pole because of inclement weather. (What did he expect to find in those climes?)
His grandmother is over her year of jubilee and is setting out on making it through a 61st year on the throne without too much difficulty. The problem is that most of her Canadian subjects really do not care enough to be interested. Oh sure, they are polite about it. We all know that Canadians have a world-wide reputation for being too damn polite.
Yet those pickle-up-their-arse monarchist Conservatives have been spending taxpayer dollars to put the word “Royal” on everything except Tony Clements’ G8 Memorial Toilets.
Canadians will also be honoured this year by a visit in May by Prince Charles and his lovely wife Camilla. This year it is the turn of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Manitoba to do the meet-and-greet thing. Charley will pontificate while saying bloody well nothing and the lovely Camilla will simper along.
But what is this in aid of? While the monarchists think everything is bloody lovely, Canadians cannot understand why we bother. And the monarchy is a bother. It is getting in the way of reform of how this country is governed. It has to be brought forward as one of the governance factors that Canadians have to address.
Canadians, English, French, aboriginals and everyone else have to start thinking about constitutional repair. We need an elected congress of voters to come together and plan how Canada should be governed for the future. And everything has to be on the table. At a time when the Conservatives have destroyed any value we might have been getting from the Senate of Canada, Canadians want something done about it. It will take time, it will take argument, it will require a plan that Canadians can vote on. It has to be their plan to be approved and implemented. It probably will not include a monarchy.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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