The Canadian Friends of the Royal Family recently conducted a survey as to how Canadians feel about the Monarchy and its roll in Canada. I was not all that concerned about the statistic that, of the 1,400 Canadians polled, over half felt that having a monarch as the Head of State was outdated.
The statistic that made me shiver was that, of those people, 47 per cent did not know that Canada was a Constitutional Monarchy. I am not a fan of the Royal Family by any stretch. I am, however, a very concerned citizen who is afraid that a large percentage of Canadians do not know how our government works.
Ignorance is a scary thing and can allow for a large number of problems when it comes to political discourse within our country. A fine example occurred last December when the proposed coalition between the Liberal Party and the NDP with support from the Bloc Quebecois was called a “coup d’etat”.
What was ignored was that the unelected Governor General, using her Constitutional powers, prorogued Parliament. Canadians were more outraged by political parties working together and doing the things they are allowed to do under the parliamentary tradition than the actions of the Governor General.
It becomes frightening to me to even ask Canadians to decide on the abolition of the Monarchy or if the Governor General should be an elected position. If the response is that “the Monarchy is outdated”, I don’t think the complexities of the issue are understood. The political discourse surrounding the issue may be too superficial.
To even open any questions surrounding Canada’s Head of State would require a constitutional conference. All provinces would have to agree upon the newly proposed replacement or amendments to the role of the Governor General/Monarch. You would also have to hope that provinces didn’t bring up other issues like senate reform, putting private property as a right in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the continued issue of Aboriginal rights or the fact that Quebec has yet to sign the 1982 Constitution Act.
These are all important political and legal questions that may or may not arise, and they are questions I am not sure many Canadians would know to ask.
These topics were debated by late conservative thinkers like Edmund Burke during the French Revolution. They feared that by getting rid of tried and tested traditions (for Burke it was the French Monarchy) you put the stability of a society at risk. This is a thoughtful response and was valuable to the discourse of the time.
To play on national sentiment or national pride should not be the sole basis of one’s argument. I do not dismiss the importance of knowing one’s history nor the complex parts that history plays in Canadian society, but it would be sad to think that Canada’s Constitutional Monarchy could be justified on the basis that it creates difference between us and the Americans.
Before an issue of this magnitude can be addressed, Canadians need to receive more education on how politics work. Political life has lost its importance in Canadian society and in the education system. The emphasis is on creating tomorrow’s work force rather than tomorrow’s citizen. The reality of our society has created such fear and insecurity in the job market that it is all we care about. Education is no longer about understanding how our society works or how our society came to be, but it is now solely viewed as a tool or means of getting a job.
The ignorance of Canadians about the monarchy and politics in Canada is symptomatic of something more unsettling about Canadian society than the issue of the monarchy itself.
You're a git ..
Our governor general was doing what she was suppose to be doing .. representing the Queen's power in parliment.
That people were getting upset with opposition parties trying to subvert power from a legimately elected government shows that Canadians have their priorities right.
It is you that has your priorities wrong to say otherwise.
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for your complimentary name calling.
I've already addressed the actions that the Governor General could have taken last December, the legitimacy of all those actions and actions by other parties in another article . I will openly admit that I did not agree with her decision to Prarogue Parliamnet. http://thebruns.ca/content/2009-09/patronage-name-democracy-0. Feel free to read. I do enjoy political discourse like most people and interestingly enough, this article was mainly about that, but name calling is a little childish and unwelcome.
Cheers,
It all depends on how you define legitimate. You define it as elected within our current system of constitutional monarchy. Cody defines it as elected based on what Canadians vote for, not what an unelected "head of state" demands. I know which one sounds more "legitimate" to me...
You are right on the money. I too think the Constitutional Monarchy system is outdated, but as you pointed out, before Canada changes its core governing system, the people should understand what is being changed and what it's going to be changed into. If 47% of Canadians don't even know that Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy, then we got a lot of people that needs to first be educated on how the government works.
Also your last point hit the nail on the head. Schools today, specially high school and college have curricula or programs designed to pump out qualified job applicants for the myriad companies out there. So in some way, the schools are catering to the interests of corporations. But since people do NEED to work in order to put food on the table, to pay the rent, etc, no one is complaining about this system so far. However...as you have pointed out, no one is teaching students how to be GOOD CITIZENS. They are all pumping out what they think will be good JOB CANDIDATES, but they ought to balance it by having courses that teach students how to be good citizens.
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