Canada has a King.
Yes, Canada is a constitutional monarchy. The same monarch that rules Great Britain also rules many nations, including major anglosphere nations like New Zealand, Australia, and yes- my northern neighbor Canada.
Canada's "Independence" from Great Britain has happened in waves, unlike the US with a big break-off in 1776.
Canada's biggest change was in the 1867 through Canada's confederation when it became "The Dominion of Canada" and started making it's own provinces, territories, parliament, constitution and laws.
((This is all a long story that I'm sure to break down on the YouTube channel, guaranteed.))
After confederation, a series of changes had lead to Parliament in London having less and less power over Canada.
Finally, in 1982-- yes, THAT recently-- London gave up its power to change Canada's constitution and it let Canada drive itself into the future completely free of Great Britain's Parliament. Yeah. 1982. One thing though-- Canadian Parliament in Ottawa can make laws, change its constitution, everything-- but it still has a monarch. The same monarch as Great Britain.
Even when you win Canadian Elections to become Prime Minister of Canada? The British Monarch has to approve of you and THEY CAN SAY NO.
Anyway-- to the big news--
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
A big event hit me when I was riding my motorcycle up the Sunshine Coast after I was crossing a few ferries heading north out of Vancouver. I received a push notification from my local Minnesota newspaper, the Star Tribune, notifying me that the Queen had died at 96 years old.
I had no one to tell! It was actually quite thrilling to be in Canada when it occurred because I got to see it from their perspective on the ground.
BREAKING THE NEWS
I was at a ferry in between islands striking up conversation with a native BC Biker. We were in the process of chocking and tying up our bikes. I then found out he had no idea about the Queen.
"Did you hear the big news today?"
"What's that?"
"Oh, you don't know, eh? It's pretty big news."
He got a concerned look on his face. A terror attack? Major news from The States? Any number of worst-case scenarios ran through this poor man's head.
"The queen died."
"oh..?"
He stared off into the ocean, thousands of miles away. It was like he'd never live to see the day. He was just given the news that he had a new King and he was the subject of a new monarch.
LOCAL MEDIA RESPONSE
Later I stayed at a bunk-a-biker in Courtenay, half-way up Vancouver island. It was a great stay where I was able to get a lot of my chores done. We settled down at the end of the day with some amazing Chinese takeout and watched the local news. There were wholesome segments on a Lion's Club Fundraiser golf-ball raffle, some saddening local crime segments, but then the big news was of course, the fresh take on the monarchy.
Canadians were able to go to city halls or local government buildings and write their condolences on letters to send to the royal family. Regular people going into 'polling location' -style areas set up to write letters. I found it quite odd it was all ready to go across the country so soon. Then again, she was 96.
Then there were the opinion polls. The majority of Canadians still felt like they wanted to be a part of the monarchy-- but this was before her death. Now, the majority of Canadians are good with bucking the monarchy. Or, at least, the numbers are rising.
The death of the queen now put that in question. Canadians COULD buck the monarch like the island of Barbados did in 2021 last year. They would need to go through a process of changing their constitution and it this would mean a LOT of changes. It would be an amendment, but a LONG one.
The Monarch is mentioned all over their constitution so that would mean changing how Prime Ministers are elected and many other duties. Even if, BIG IF, everyone that wants a change could actually agree, then you'd have to have the political will to change it.
Constitutional scholars were on TV discussing how such changes could be made-- that is, if Canada had the political will to do it.
ISOLATED CANADIANS
I went to a campground on the west coast of Vancouver Island to check out the surfing towns of Ucluelet and Tofino. I was talking with a couple at a neighboring campsite and inadvertently broke the news. I told them the same story about how I had broke the news to the man on the ferry:
"yeah, it's nice being offline for a while when camping. I ran into a guy on the ferry who still didn't know the queen had died."
"THE QUEEN DIED?!" they both said shockingly.
I kind of laughed- but they didn't really dwell on it. They didn't know days after it had happened and I'm sure they'd be fine for days until they go back to their regular lives.
CANADA'S RESPONSE
Then, there are the scandals. The current King of Canada has a known offending pedophile as a brother and he may end up protecting him. The King also cheated on Princess Diana way back in the day for the current queen and people LOVE Diana, who happens to be the heir's mother.
On the ground, there is a kind of fascination with the Royal Family but there isn't any kind of celebrity worship from what I saw. I'm sure it exists, but not where I roamed.
Most Canadians shrugged apathetically- they don't care too much.
Others were thinking about how anything could change that they don't yet understand. The thing about a 96 year-old monarch is it's synonymous with stability. People KNEW that Elizabeth II had a hands-off approach to government. She let the commonwealth kind of run as they wanted. Would Charles III continue that laissez faire approach or would he tinker with things internally? Would he be more authoritarian? Constitutionally, it's within his power to do so, which is at odds with Western values of free speech and so on.
Sure, their money will change and have new faces on it, but for Canadians, many aren't sure what this change of power could mean for them. Neither do the rest of us, for that matter.
-JT
9/22/22