{"id":21055,"date":"2018-05-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=21055"},"modified":"2020-03-26T03:20:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T07:20:33","slug":"a-royal-wedding-and-a-public-holiday-does-the-crown-still-matter-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2018\/05\/19\/a-royal-wedding-and-a-public-holiday-does-the-crown-still-matter-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"A royal wedding and a public holiday: Does the Crown still matter in Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Her<\/a>

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in St. Lambert Quebec at the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. June 26, 1959. Photo: Duncan Cameron. Library and Archives Canada, PA-121475<\/p><\/div>\n

A doubly royal weekend<\/h3>\n

By the time most people read this, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have already been married at Windsor Castle in England. It\u2019s also the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada.\u00a0 Victoria Day is the third Monday in May, closest to or on the May 24 birthday of Queen Victoria, who was Queen of the British Empire\u2014which included Canada, when the country was established. These days, the weekend is often better known as \u201cMay 24,\u201d or \u201cMay two-four,\u201d in recognition of the 24-pack cases of beer often associated with the weekend. Victoria Day is also when Canadians observe the birthday of Elizabeth II, the current Queen. Her actual birthday is April 21, but let\u2019s face it, the weather\u00a0was too cold and wet then to enjoy camping or a backyard cook-out.<\/p>\n

The monarchists<\/h3>\n
\"Prince<\/a>

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle going to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day 2017. Photo: Mark Jones<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n

For many, enthusiasm for royalty is a serious obligation of national loyalty. The Monarchist League of Canada is one organization that takes the Crown and all it stands for very seriously. Its website suggests how Canadians can arrange social or community events to celebrate Prince Harry and Ms. Markle’s wedding. The league also gives a lot of insight into the logic of Canadians who support the monarchy\u00a0 \u201cA central reality of Canadian life is the overwhelming influence of American culture. For Canada, constitutional monarchy is important as it makes Canada unique in the Americas,\u201d said Philippe Chartrand of the league’s Ottawa chapter, adding that \u201cMembers of our Royal Family serve as role-models to look up to. They dedicate their lives to the services of their subjects, it is in fact, for all the pomp and circumstance quite a sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Royal<\/a>

Royal souvenirs have always been popular with some Canadians. This print is from a Canadian-made china plate commemorating the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. They were the parents of Queen Elizabeth II. The plate belonged to the author’s late grandmother. Photo: James Morgan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chartrand said he is a monarchist because the institution represents stability. The \u201croyal prerogative\u201d of the Crown\u2014the Queen and her representatives (the Governor-General and Lieutenants-Governor of each province, are the sort of referees who can intervene to keep an elected government acting within the constitution. The Crown is above partisan politics, and Chartrand claimed that the stability of the Crown has kept Canada relatively peaceful and helped it evolve into a progressive, economically strong nation. He referred to a 2017 study that showed eight of the world\u2019s ten \u201cbest governments\u201d were countries with constitutional monarchies.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

It would be easy to think that most Canadian monarchists are elderly people of English heritage, but Chartrand said that is not the case. He said the Ottawa chapter of the monarchist league has a \u201cvery typically Canadian\u201d membership of people of all ages, genders, races, and religions, and proves that the monarchy is still relevant in a very diverse country.<\/p>\n

The republicans<\/h3>\n

Citizens for a Canadian Republic do not share the enthusiasm towards the monarchy. The organization formed in 2002 and wants Canada to end its ties with the British Crown. Director Tom Freda said they actually wish Prince Harry and Meghan Markle the very best with their marriage, and did the same when Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, married Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011. But, he emphasized that the monarchy \u201cis a foreign-based, inegalitarian, undemocratic anachronism unsuitable for Canada in the Twenty-first Century.\u201d Freda referred to a 2017 opinion poll where 61% of those surveyed agreed that \u201cthe royals are simply celebrities and nothing more,\u201d and should have no official role in Canadian society.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Queen Victoria Monument in the logically named Victoria Park in Kitchener, Ontario. Photo: John Boyd. Library and Archives Canada, 1971-120 NPC<\/p><\/div>\n

When it comes to Victoria Day, Freda said there is \u201cstrangeness\u201d about a day celebrating a person who never once visited Canada. He said most Canadians don\u2019t even realize that since 1957, Victoria Day has also been the day Elizabeth II\u2019s birthday is officially observed. Freda said it\u2019s a myth that Victoria was closely involved with the establishment of Canada in 1867. Her diary entry for July 1, 1867 made no mention of Canada, but only the day\u2019s weather at Windsor Castle and the anniversary of a relative. Freda also noted that Victoria Day\u2014or the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, are not public holidays in Britain!<\/p>\n

He said his organization would rather see Canadians use the long weekend to honor other things like democracy or indigenous people. In Quebec, support for the monarchy is traditionally at its lowest for historical, religious, and political reasons. The protestant English defeated the Roman Catholic French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the tension over the result has never quite disappeared for many. In 2003, the Quebec government renamed Victoria Day in the province as the f\u00eate des patriotes <\/em>or Patriot\u2019s Day in honor of the republican rebels of 1837-38 who tried to overthrow the British colonial government.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>There is no denying the British Crown\u2019s significance in the history of Canada and its influence on Canadian society. This is clearly important to many Canadians. The glamor and ceremony of royal weddings definitely makes the monarchy popular in the same way movie stars are, even if there is ambivalence towards the institution itself.<\/p>\n

Canadians gladly welcome the May long weekend every year, even if they don\u2019t understand or care why it exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A doubly royal weekend
\nBy the time most people read this, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[17240,880,35,5667],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21928,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21055\/revisions\/21928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}