Before I continue, full disclosure: like many Quebecers, I am anti-monarchy and think it’s antiquated and a waste of tax dollars. Furthermore, like Gilles Duceppe said awhile ago, they never work and they live off the backs of the tax-payers. I have to ask, particular today’s neo-cons, who love to villify the poor, particularly those on welfare, why doesn’t it bother them to have their tax dollars fund the Royals and their lives of largesse but they resent helping those less fortunate than themselves?
As for the Will and Kate show, I am disgusted with the fact that our tax dollars bankrolled this little Canadian honeymoon for a couple who have more money than Gawd. It is synonymous to government funding of that hockey rink in Quebec City for billionaire NHL players. If they insisted on coming here, they could’ve at least have had the decency to have paid their own way. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I heard it before.
Their visit cost the tax payers a pittance. That isn’t the point. While programs like health care and education are suffering and child poverty is up, wouldn’t that money be better spent on those items?
Furthermore, what I hated was the media shoving them down the throats of Canadians every chance they had, either in their respective papers or on Twitter. Exaggeration about the protesters, calling them ‘insane’ or ‘lunatics’. I saw them for myself at Ste-Justine Hospital and from what I heard from other venues, they were anything but. What I did notice, however, was people going up to them, antagonizing them, picking an argument. It was like they wanted the separatist protesters to do something; to get into some kind of altercation, to prove them right. They were disappointed. Sure the protesters engaged in discussion, but they behaved. Sorry Don MacPherson and Graeme Hamilton for your disappointment. I guess unruly protesters sells more papers. You may not agree with Quebec separatists, but just like the G20 protesters, these separatists had every right to protest the monarchy. It’s what we call democracy boys ‘n’ girls, or what’s left of it. Once again the speech warriors of the right exhibit how free speech is only for them but not for everybody else like G20 protesters or Quebec separatists or plain old anti-monarchists.
“Parasites” many called the Royals. The outrage! Outrage I tell you! Neo-cons call the poor and the downtrodden ‘parasites’ and other unflattering names everyday of the week, where’s outrage?
Media and others amongst the chattering classes refer to the protesters as an embarrassment. Really? Protesters exercising their democratic right is embarrassment? Really rich from those who seem to either fully support or remain silent over Stevie Spiteful’s insistence at keeping chrysotile asbestos off the list of hazardous materials of the Rotterdam Convention. Who’d a thunk it? Quebec separatist protesters are bigger embarrassment than being known, collectively as the “merchants of death”.
Oh yes and watching those pro-monarchist right winged media hacks on Twitter wasting time tweeting how we should ask if the new Quebec NDP MPs are for or against the monarchy. WHO CARES??? I care more about them being able use every tool at their disposal to spike Stevie Spiteful’s blood pressure. I want to see them opposing that insidious upcoming omnibus bill with as much zeal as they did with Bill C-6. Who cares what they think about the monarchy?
Royal Inconvenience
Oh yes! What was the crank anti-monarchist even doing at Ste-Justine in the first place, you may be asking? No, I wasn’t protesting with the protesters. I actually live near the hospital. I was out, on foot. I was walking along Cote-Ste-Catherine, on my way home. All of a sudden, the mob scene on both sides of the street, contained like sardines inside police ribbon. Nowhere for me to continue on either sidewalk, so I had to continue on the street, until a cop came up to me and asked where I was going. I told him I was going home, that I lived in the area. He told me the motorcade was about to leave and that I had to wait behind a police ribbon and couldn’t go anywhere. Imagine! I, a taxpayer, couldn’t go home. I had to be packed like sardines with the crowd under the beating sun; hardly ideal conditions for me who hates crowds and heat. Mercifully, I didn’t get a migraine.
I would later hear of aquaintances getting snarled up in traffic due to the motorcade getting from one venue to another. Would’ve been nice to have had more accurate traffic reports so Saturday commuters w0uld’ve had choices of routes from point A to point B.
I have to wonder how many others were inconvenienced by the royal visit? Those like myself who are less than enthused by the Will and Kate show.
I do have to say that the entire SPVM seemed to be around the Royals. I would’ve been an excellent opportunity for a crime spree to have happened in other parts of town.
Big Shiny Things More Important Than Our Civic Duties and Preserving our Democracy — How Shallow Are We?
Yikes! All over the big TV screen, nothing but royal insanity. Everybody flocking all over Parliament Hill as well as big crowds at the other venues to see the Will and Kate show. Every paper seems to cover one thing in common– answer one burning question–what Kate’s wearing?? I’m really mad now, because I’m about to have a Suzy ALLCAPS moment now. WHO CARES??? Seriously, have we gotten that shallow? We care more about what Kate is wearing than the sorry state of our democracy or lack thereof?? Out of all those people ga ga giddy for Royalness who made the pilgrimage to see the the Will and Kate show, I wonder how many of them actually showed up to vote on election day? This, I find particularly frightening.
I was listening to some commentary from Royal gawkers. One particular of dumbness that struck me. “We must keep the monarchy! It’s the only thing that separates us from Americans!” Good gawd, man! You haven’t looked around lately? The race to the bottom with the Americans has been going on steadily for some time now. Haven’t checked out that North American Perimeter bullshit Stevie Spiteful has been cooking up in secret with President Obama as of late? How about Stevie’s admiration for “America’s Conservative movement being a light and inspiration…”? This brings me to my next point: Do we really lack originality? Why must we be either like the British empire or like the Americans? Why can’t we Canadians be designer originals?
Is There Really a Growing Support For the Royals or Are The Will and Kate Show Simply a Shiny Novelty?
Hard to tell for right now. Support for the Royals was dwindling for awhile. While Queen Elizabeth was liked, Prince Charles certainly wasn’t, particularly after the divorce from Diana who was quite popular and the marriage to Camila Parker Bowles, who isn’t. Furthermore, Charles is stale and thus, a reminder of yesteryear. Will and Kate are young and considered hip, fresh and cutsie. They brought novelty to the brand, and let’s not kid ourselves, the Royals are a brand, who are marketed much the same way political parties are. Had it been Charles and Camilla who came to visit instead of Will and Kate, I imagine that protests in la belle province would’ve been more spirited and I have to wonder if support would’ve been nearly as strong?
Whatever the case, when I see even some progressive bloggers seeming to be happy about increased support for the monarchy, I get worried, for the above reasons, as it is a step backwards, instead of forwards, like support for many of Stevie Spiteful’s acts and ideology, like tough on crime, warrantless internet spying, union busting, trickle down economics and military industrial complex.
Another thing, I’ve noticed that every time there’s a royal visit, Stevie Spiteful generally uses that opportunity to hide from something or cook up something insidious and/or deflect. What is he up to now?