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Canwest News Service
Canada’s waning interest in the monarchy should come as no surprise to anyone. Nor should it be viewed as an insult to the Royal Family or to its Canadian friends, who recently commissioned a poll with some pretty telling results.
Rather, it is simply a sign of maturity in a young country that has spent centuries as a colony of either France or Britain, and is now a sovereign, multicultural nation in which the Crown plays a largely symbolic role.
The disappointing news to champions of the monarchy is that two-thirds of Canadians think the Prince of Wales is out of date and out of touch. More than 50 per cent no longer believe we should have a king or queen as our head of state, according to the poll conducted in August by Toronto-based Navigator and obtained by the CBC.
Again, not surprisingly, the younger the respondents, the greater the disconnect from the monarchy. Interestingly, the survey screened out anyone under the age of 24, presumably expecting that affinity for the Royals would drop along with respondents’ ages.
Still, some 80 per cent said they thought the monarchy was important historically to Canada, which is really all anyone should expect. Canadians apparently feel a nostalgic, historic tie to Britain, setting us apart from our American neighbours and adding one more layer to the complex flavour that is Canada.
But anglophiles must keep in mind that Canada is not a nation of aging Anglo-Saxons. A huge part of our uniquely Canadian identity is an ethnic and cultural mosaic that incorporates and celebrates people with roots in countries all over the world. It seems naive to think these newcomers, or their descendants, would feel strong ties to Canada’s colonial roots.
In truth, much of the attention paid the Royal Family by Canadians in the past couple of decades hasn’t been particularly deferential, or even all that positive. Since the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, the Royal Family has been more a source of entertainment than an institution inspiring awe or respect among Canadians.
Royal-watchers on this side of the pond were excited by Diana’s wardrobe, by her marital escapades, by the circus surrounding her death, and by the subsequent accomplishments and missteps of her children. With Diana’s death, the celebrity appeal of the monarchy all but disappeared, leaving only the stodgy, awkward Charles to represent the public face of the House of Windsor.
He, too, has had his fair share of humiliations, particularly around his relationship with his now-wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. But recently, he has done an admirable job of turning his image around.
Still, it is perfectly understandable that Canadians would see him and his views as largely irrelevant to their lives, and that 80 per cent of them wouldn’t make an effort to see him, even if he was nearby.
The results have inspired much hand-wringing among fans of the royals on the eve of the Prince of Wales’ 10-day visit to Canada. The assistant editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph told the CBC the poll would be "truly devastating for the Prince of Wales and he’ll be very upset by it, and Her Majesty will be very disappointed too."
What should be even more disappointing to the Queen is the poll’s finding that 47 per cent of respondents didn’t know she was Canada’s head of state. Even our own governor-general, Michaelle Jean, seems to have forgotten that fact.
The report of the poll’s results quite rightly sums up the feelings of Canadians as "caused not by anger, resentment or republican ideology, but by disinterest." It is not that Canadians are stirred up over the issue, agitating for the abolition of the monarchy. They are not about to drop all references to the Crown in our courts or melt the Queen’s likeness off our coins. In fact, they rather like and appreciate our historic tie to Britain and the role it plays in our identity. They just don’t think the Royal Family has a strong and pressing connection to our daily lives.
And they’d be right.
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Let’s grow up and Elect a real head of State
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During this period of slow downs, job lost, slow
recovery, it is to my opinion the worst time we should
have a Royal visit. Prince Chales and the Duchess of
Cornwall fail to impress me has members of the Royal
family. By coming to visit us in NOVEMBER (In Quebec
it means…Le mois des morts) sounds a sour note for me.
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Ill try to get a tax credit for my contribution to they’re holiday… cant get one for mine and besides…i probably contributed to the fir hat too!
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I tried to describe these same feelings to a Brit this summer. She got “royally” ticked off. I guess it didn’t help that she was a former member of the British navy, however she couldn’t seem to fathom my indifference to the royal family. She was under the impression that without the royal family Canada would be lost, our government would collapse and we would immediately face the threat of foreign invasion with no way to defend ourselves. I had to laugh.
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People tend to forget that continuity plays a large part in forming a cohesive society. The Royal Family is a part of our heritage. God Save the Queen. We need her today more than ever.
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It is pleasing to see that Canadians themselves (regardless of the kow-towing of your government) see the British/English monarchy (and particularly Charles & Camilla) as irrelevant – despite the fact that you still have the Queen of Britain/England as your Head of State. At least you have your own independent flag. My country, Australia, doesn’t only have the colonial trappings of the English/British Queen (a foreigner) as our Head of State but we also still have a flag which bears the Union Jack! Two dignified democratic sovereign nations – Canada and Australia – should have dropped all this childish colonial nonsense long since.
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A monarchy is an embarrassment for any people with an IQ higher than 80, which is the average IQ in England. A country where one in four students in grade seven are unable to read, that has the most violent women in the world, the highest drinking rates in the world with an increasing problem with people binge drinking so excessively that they were bursting their bladders and the National Health Service had to issue public warnings – I did not think you could burst your bladder-, has the highest crime rates in Europe, the highest teenage pregnancy rates : child abuse : and sexual addiction, and one in ten living on social benefits.
Now, who wants the royals or the British as head of their country?
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