As we suffer through more breathless coverage of the royal visit (as an unrepentant monarchist, even I am done with the ridiculousness of the coverage), I felt that I should point out a bits of basic civic literacy surrounding the monarchy that seem to constantly be forgotten.
First and foremost, the Canadian Monarchy – sometimes known as the “Maple Crown” – is actually a separate legal entity from the British Monarchy. Ever since the Statute of Westminster, the Canadian Crown was created as a separate body that just happens to be inhabited by the same people who constitute the British royal family. Thus for us, Queen Elizabeth II is not only the Queen of the United Kingdom, she is also the Queen of Canada as a separate legal entity. As the Queen of Canada, she has separate honours, titles, and insignia. Thus, when Prince Charles or Prince William come to visit as her heirs, they are visiting as members of the Canadian Monarchy and not the British ones, and they too have their own separate honours, titles, and personal flags. If the British abolished their monarchy tomorrow, we would still have ours, and the Queen would still be the Queen of Canada even if she were no longer the Queen of England. And if we really wanted (and could stomach an appropriate constitutional amendment, albeit there is debate as to which particular formula one would use), we could designate a different heir in the line of succession than the established British monarchy. Hence, people waving the Union Jack are in fact flying the wrong flag – when in Canada, they are the Canadian monarchy and should be presented with the Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf.
And now that this particular popular misconception has been addressed, perhaps we could mention a couple of other things. Like how The Crown does not in fact mean the Royal Family, but is rather a political corporation and the keystone of executive authority in our system of parliamentary democracy. Similarly, the pageantry and symbolism of the monarchy is not tied to the constitutional functions and legal powers of the Crown. And if one were to abolish the monarchy, it would mean a major reorganisation of our Crown powers.
Okay, now that that’s been cleared up, here’s a photo I took from the royal couple’s arrival at the National War Memorial this afternoon.
And here is the Duke’s speech at Rideau Hall.
Have a good Canada Day, everyone!