Montrealers Protest Royalty

[wyly]

Fundamentally changing our system of government should be a minor issue? Really?

yes really, and it need not be a fundamental change, that's only what monarchists want to make it to avoid the issue...eliminate one useless royal pig at the trough and replace it with a Canadian of our choosing...

[Smallc]

Changing from a Monarchy to a Republic is a huge change. Constitutions aren't simply changed for the fun of it. This is far more complex than you want to admit.

Edited November 13, 2009 by Smallc

[Sir Bandelot]

Duceppe and Marois - have both said the monarchy is irrelevant to them

Sounds like they've got it right then, thats likely the attitude of most Canadians.

[Sir Bandelot]

I posted the stats on Quebecers attitude towards the Afghanistan war, but ran out of time to do the rest (had to go to work!!) So here it is-

The POLLARA survey indicates that support in English Canada has eroded: 32 per cent favour scrapping the monarchy, 45 per cent don't care and only 21 per cent support it.

In Quebec, a strong 70 per cent favoured the abolition of the monarchy, while another 18 per cent said they are indifferent; only seven per cent still support it.

http://www.pollara.ca/Library/News/dec_17.html

Quebec is by far the most in favour of cutting ties. Three-in-four Quebec respondents (74%) do not want Canada to be linked to the British monarchy, 71 per cent say the same even if Prince Charles becomes king, and over half (51%) say they want no monarch after the Queen.

http://www.angusreidstrategies.com/polls-analysis/opinion-polls/angus-reid-poll-monarchy-over-half-think-canada-should-break-ties-queen

Opposition to the monarchy and the governor general is particularly strong in Quebec.

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20060925_133506_133506&source=srch

It's not necessarily a "proof" but the possibility of anti-monarchism in Quebec is there. Some would even swear by it, that its the one most important "wedge" seperating English and French Canada.

The idea of replacing the GG has been put forward at various times before, with some practical solutions-

The Cabinet in June 1978 put forward the constitutional amendment Bill C-60, that, amongst other changes, potentially affected the sovereign's role as head of state by vesting executive authority in the Governor General, and renaming the position as First Canadian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_the_monarchy_in_Canada

Edited November 13, 2009 by Sir Bandelot

[Smallc]

That doesn't address any of the problems with the change.

[g_bambino]

apparently this is all too difficult for you to comprehend...

Enlighten me, then.

[g_bambino]

The Cabinet in June 1978 put forward the constitutional amendment Bill C-60, that, amongst other changes, potentially affected the sovereign's role as head of state by vesting executive authority in the Governor General, and renaming the position as First Canadian.

That's right. And the idea was shot down by every provincial premier, including Quebec's. What you failed to add from the article you linked to:

...the provincial premiers (including that of Quebec)... expressed their opposition to "constitutional changes that substitute for the Queen as ultimate authority a Governor General whose appointment and dismissal would be solely the pleasure of the federal cabinet."

Hear that, Wily?

[ToadBrother]

Changing from a Monarchy to a Republic is a huge change. Constitutions aren't simply changed for the fun of it. This is far more complex than you want to admit.

And we can't even change the Constitution to reform the Senate, let alone a major structural change involved in replacing the Crown.

Maybe the monarchy is irrelevant to most Canadians. Heck, it's probably irrelevant to most Brits, at least as a day-to-day thing. But the fact is that no one in a position to meaningfully consider it in either country is going to light the powder keg again. Meech Lake and Charlottetown were disasters, and certainly weren't dealing with as crucial an issue as the Monarchy in Canada. There isn't a person of serious political aspirations out there, even a staunch republican, who is going to go down the road Mulroney did. It's going to take, I figure, at least another 20 or 30 years before the stain of that disaster has gone to have washed away enough for it to be brought up again.

Canada is basically in a Mexican stand off right now over the Constitution. It isn't going to be an issue because the status quo is working. The second you decide to literally tear the Constitution up (because this is going to be more than an amendment, it's going to be a wholesale rewrite), the Quebec Separatists, West vs. East rivalries, and everything else is going to boil to the surface and this country will be torn to pieces.

I'm ambivalent about the Monarchy, but I'm old enough to remember the wranglings over repatriating the Constitution, and Meech Lake and Charlottetown, and how it all nearly ended with the 1995 referendum in Quebec, and I don't think I'm alone in being one of the people who said "Enough! Yes the Constitution sucks in some respects, but the wars to amend it are so much worse!"

Prince Charles, if he manages to outlive his extraordinarily healthy mother, will become King Charles III of Canada, and I'm pretty damned certain that Prince William will in his turn become King William V of Canada. That will pretty much take us past the middle of this century, by which time enough water will have gone under the bridge for the debate to be opened.

[g_bambino]

Hats off to this brave, lone woman who stood up to these protesters who cried "le wah" (thanks, kimmy!).

One of the protestors, a red-haired francophone woman named Danielle Fortin who said she was "a quarter" Irish and who was carrying an Irish flag, said to Reny, "Whose the real minority here? Don't you know your history?"

Reny shot back, "Where did you learn your history? At the University of the St. Jean Baptiste Society?"

One woman against the anti-Royal mob

Good for her!

[Smallc]

Did you notice the first comment you come to? Very nice, and very well put.

[g_bambino]

Did you notice the first comment you come to? Very nice, and very well put.

Not until you pointed it out, no. But, you're right; a well composed piece from an interesting perspective. Now, where's Bush-Cheney?