The Monarchist 1.0
Defending the British Crown Commonwealth and the English-Speaking Peoples
[+] HONOURING OUR PATRON, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, VICTOR OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
[+] HONOURING OUR QUEEN, ELIZABETH THE SECOND, ON THE 80TH YEAR OF HER BIRTH (1926 - 2006)
[+] HONOURING OUR KING, SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, ON THE 1000TH YEAR OF HIS BIRTH (1005 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR HERO, LORD NELSON, ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR SONS, THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, Royal Canadian Regiment, Nov 27, 2006 (Afstan)
Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, Intelligence Corps, Nov 12, 2006 (Iraq)
Private Jacob B. Kovco, 25, Royal Australian Regiment, April 21, 2006
[+] HONOURING OUR VETS ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (1856 - 2006)
Friday, April 28, 2006
Patriating the Monarchy
Republics are bloodless abstractions. We all know this. We all know they are founded upon conceptual notions such as equality, fraternity and liberty, rather than the more tangible drivers that are the soul of monarchies, like human connection, continuity and experience. As Andrew Coyne wrote in a 1998 column, the Queen is more than the personification of state; she is the humanization of it. Republicans and nationalists might complain that our head of state is an absentee and “foreign” landlord, instead of a living national presence, but let no-one be fooled: republicans rally around the flag, very rarely the person in office.
So it is a strange thing indeed to hear them talking about “patriating the monarchy”, as they did in a Globe and Mail editorial the day after the Queen turned 80:
There is no need to declare a republic. Telling, isn’t it. Translation: we’d like to, but that would be too difficult, both constitutionally and democratically. Better to sidestep the people on that one. Better to suffocate the monarchy ever so slowly and by stealth until we become a republic in all but name. They might call it “patriating the monarchy”, but we all know this is code for republicanizing it. The end result of a crownless GG as head of state would be no different than that of a powerless president - people would quickly lose interest.
Obviously if you’re going to patriate the monarchy, you have to patriate the monarch - otherwise, you’re faking it. If Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica…want to get together and decide who gets Prince Harry, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew etc, then I’m all ears. But anything less dehumanizes the state and cheapens our national heritage. We would lose a valuable focal point of our unity, that sense of connectivity and gravitas that only monarchs and a thousand year old Crown can bring. Robbing us of the Crown and all that it represents would send us further down the path of banality, one where corporate logos and national branding are increasingly ruling the day. This must not happen. If we are serious about patriating the monarchy, then we should not abolish the monarch. We should abolish the GG.
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 5:57 p.m. | LINKS |
Republics are bloodless abstractions. We all know this. We all know they are founded upon conceptual notions such as equality, fraternity and liberty, rather than the more tangible drivers that are the soul of monarchies, like human connection, continuity and experience. As Andrew Coyne wrote in a 1998 column, the Queen is more than the personification of state; she is the humanization of it. Republicans and nationalists might complain that our head of state is an absentee and “foreign” landlord, instead of a living national presence, but let no-one be fooled: republicans rally around the flag, very rarely the person in office.
So it is a strange thing indeed to hear them talking about “patriating the monarchy”, as they did in a Globe and Mail editorial the day after the Queen turned 80:
The Queen’s 80th birthday is an occasion to admire her record as monarch and wish her long life and happiness. But it is also a time to think about what happens when her reign ends. This paper has long argued that, after her passing, Canada should choose its own head of state.
Though many Canadians feel great affection for the Queen and the Royal Family, the time has passed when the monarchy was a meaningful part of our national life. Sharing our head of state with a foreign country after 138 years of nationhood is an anachronism, not fitting with our present reality as a modern, multicultural country.
There is no need to declare a republic. The Governor-General could be chosen in some novel, Canadian way – perhaps, as suggested here before, by the Companions of the Order of Canada. Whatever the method, he or she, not a British monarch, should be our next head of state.
There is no need to declare a republic. Telling, isn’t it. Translation: we’d like to, but that would be too difficult, both constitutionally and democratically. Better to sidestep the people on that one. Better to suffocate the monarchy ever so slowly and by stealth until we become a republic in all but name. They might call it “patriating the monarchy”, but we all know this is code for republicanizing it. The end result of a crownless GG as head of state would be no different than that of a powerless president - people would quickly lose interest.
Obviously if you’re going to patriate the monarchy, you have to patriate the monarch - otherwise, you’re faking it. If Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica…want to get together and decide who gets Prince Harry, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew etc, then I’m all ears. But anything less dehumanizes the state and cheapens our national heritage. We would lose a valuable focal point of our unity, that sense of connectivity and gravitas that only monarchs and a thousand year old Crown can bring. Robbing us of the Crown and all that it represents would send us further down the path of banality, one where corporate logos and national branding are increasingly ruling the day. This must not happen. If we are serious about patriating the monarchy, then we should not abolish the monarch. We should abolish the GG.
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 5:57 p.m. | LINKS |
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