Roundup: Slowly effacing the Crown

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There has been a certain level of trepidation amongst monarchists when the Liberals came to power, given their penchant for rewriting Canadian monarchical symbols out of things in order to focus on the maple leaf. When Trudeau announced that there would be no changes to our relationship with the Crown, there was a bit of a sigh of relief, particularly when he said that he would not be de-royalizing the service names of the Canadian Forces, but they are slowly and subtly reversing some of the Conservative restorations of monarchical symbols, starting with generals’ rank pins. They had gone from maple leaves, reverting to the older crowns given that hey, this country is a constitutional monarchy and the head of the Canadian Forces is the Queen of Canada. But now they’re turning back into maple leaves. The official excuse is that it’s easier for our international allies to recognise, but I am suspicious that this isn’t in fact a reversion to traditional Liberal effacing of monarchical symbols. What especially makes me insane about this is that it reinforces the narrative that the Conservatives as the party of the monarchy, inherently politicizing the Crown which should never, ever happen, and which is really, really irresponsible for the Liberals and NDP to engage in. Like, completely and utterly boneheadedly irresponsible. The Crown is our central organising principle. It is the centre of our constitutional framework. I cannot emphasise enough that letting one party drape themselves in the glow of the Crown unchallenged is beyond negligent. Worse, they not only let it go unchallenged by buy into this completely wrong narrative that they’re reverting to Britishisms when the Canadian monarchy is separate and distinct (well, more or less, but there is not grey area thanks to the Conservatives’ completely boneheaded royal succession bill). Rather than defending the Crown of Canada, you now have parties that are playing stupid political games around it, and doing lasting damage to Canadians’ understanding around our very constitutional framework. So slow claps all around, because this is the height of ignorant wrongheadedness. Everyone needs to be spanked for this petty and irresponsible nonsense.

https://twitter.com/pmlagasse/status/716069134925103104

https://twitter.com/pmlagasse/status/716069379809480705

Update:

I may have been hasty about the pips, as there may be good reason to change them. The rest of my points, about allowing the Crown to be politicized (especially since it allows more clueless journalists to put this frame around it), and my own trepidation about the Liberal penchant for effacing Crown symbols, remains.

Good reads:

  • At the Broadbent Summit, Thomas Mulcair is campaigning to keep his job, while Unifor president Jerry Dias says he deserves a couple of more years.
  • Following the nuclear safety summit in Washington, Trudeau is pledging $42 million to help countries secure their nuclear materials.
  • Health benefits to refugee claimants have been fully restored.
  • Parliamentary Protective Services have been making more drugs and weapons seizures in the last year than the previous few.
  • The Royal Canadian Navy is experimenting with putting smaller crews on frigates in advance of the new ships being built, as personnel levels remain a problem.
  • The judge threw out a bunch of evidence in Dean Del Mastro’s cousin’s trial for illegal donations, citing an unconstitutional RCMP fishing expedition.
  • Andrew MacDougall wonders who could be the Conservative Trudeau, and accomplish what he did for revitalizing his party.
  • Susan Delacourt shares her reminisces of Jean Lapierre.

Odds and ends:

Justin Trudeau confirmed that he will be making an official visit to India.

Some political April Fools’ moments:

One thought on “Roundup: Slowly effacing the Crown”

  1. Though a central principle, many governments since the 1970’s have avoided mentioning the Crown. From Crown Lands we went to Canada Lands, all government symbol show a Maple Leaf and no crown, Embassies abroad are simply of Canada, when asked our diplomats respond we are a Federation which often creates confusion. The Royals never visit Quebec or Quebec City since Expo 67. Our Media constantly refers to the Queen of England when she is in Canada. Think Peter Mansbridge he goes on and on about it, Commonwealth games are Empire games for him. Our politicians know that this irks certain Canadians and so the Maple Leaf is a far more safe neutral symbol. Sad that in Canada we are still going on about the Crown instead of taking a mature approach to it.

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