Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Will King Charles or William reign over Canada?

Now that the young Prince William is engaged to a charming young lady, some people are suggesting that Prince Charles should be passed over and William should be the next king.

This idea has come about perhaps because Prince Charles has a somewhat tarnished history. He was blamed for breaking the heart of and then divorcing "the people's" celebrity Princess Diana. Marrying a divorcee didn't help his reputation either, especially when he and Camilla Parker-Bowles were already good "friends" during his marriage to Diana, who felt this made her marriage to Charles a bit "crowded."

Strangely, all these royal hijinks have quite profound effects on Canada. Outside Quebec at least, many Canadians still revere, or at least like and respect Queen Elizabeth; for the reasons stated, it is hard to picture King Charles being able to command the same loyalty.

The eventual passing of our monarch will bring trouble for Canadians. If we decide to stop having the British monarch as our Queen, then shouldn't we also deal with the fact that our Senate is appointed?

And if we deal with that, it would seem logical also to try again to deal with the fact that Quebec is not a signatory to the Canadian constitution. Neither are any of the three territories; that thought logically raises the issue that Canada's Indian Act still exists, last revised 1985.

Far better, then, to have the young and innocent Prince William jump to the head of the royal queue, and leave these longstanding and thorny Canadian constitutional dilemmas to drag on a bit longer.

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