Having been brought up to be polite, I’m addressing Prince Charles with this plea: “Please, go home.”
The current visit by the Prince and his woman, titled the Duchess of Cornwall, is being treated pretty much Ho Hum by most of the public and the press. It’s hard to compete with swine flu.
Of course, being a Royal visit, it does bring out the usual infantile blathering that inevitably accompanies such occasions.
This time it’s Rose DiManno, in the Toronto Star, making much of the fact that the PM upstaged the Royal guest by “plagiarizing” part of a speech Charles gave on a visit 15 years ago. It was some nonsense about how every time the Prince visits Canada, a little more of the country seeps into his bloodstream, and from there, “straight to my heart.” What baloney.No self-respecting speechwriter would ever commit such tripe to paper.
The upshot of all this, according to DiManno, is that “The Royal We were not amused … scooped on his own best line by the Prime Minister of Canada.”
All this happened on Charles’ first stop-over in Newfoundland. The fact that the country’s biggest newspaper could find nothing more to say about the visit than to make a fuss about who upstaged whom, is pretty solid evidence of how remote the monarchy has become from Canadian life.
For most Canadians, the House of Windsor is nothing more than a historic curiosity.
The fates of the Royals — and the powers behind the thrones that pull the strings — always make interesting reading.
A book that traces Britain’s Royal lines back more than 2000 years should satisfy anyone who wishes to get beyond high school British history. It’s Royal Line of Succession by Hugo Vickers, and covers every regime from the Kings of Wessex in the 6th century to the present day. Lots of coats of arms, and family trees.
While it’s true there’ll always be a core of Canadians who like the Royals — witness the fact that Hello magazine flies off the newsstands when a Royal is on the cover instead of a Hollywood celebrity — support for the Monarchy is steadily declining in Canada.
According to a new poll, 39 per cent of Canadians think we should sever all ties. But only 31 per cent want Charles as king, compared to 41 per cent who would rather see the throne pass directly to his son, Prince William.
So maybe our disenchantment with royalty is a personality thing, caused by our distaste for Charles ? I hope not, because really, he’s not all that bad a guy. Has some enlightened views on modern architecture (hates it) and he worries about climate change.
But what Charles Windsor thinks is irrelevant to the real world. If the Royals had gone into useful occupations — like medicine, engineering or even architecture, they might be more highly regarded. But none of them have ever done a useful day’s work in their lives — unless lending their prestige to charitable causes counts as “work.”
Australia has done a better job of facing up to this than Canada, even though their vote on abolishing the monarchy went astray over disagreement as to what should replace it.
Some day, Canadians are likely to be asked to throw aside their apathy and render an opinion on our future. I suggest a simple question:
Should Canada drop the Monarchy and become a Republic. Yes or No?
If that passed, we could then get on with devising a replacement — like an elected President within a parliamentary system whereby the Prime Minister would still be the head of government.
Does it all matter? Probably not very much. And Canadian politicians, being adverse as they are to taking a stand on any issue, will drag their feet as long as possible.
But at least it might get our minds off swine flu.
Filed under: Books, History, Politics | Tagged: Abolition of monarchy, Prince Charles, Royal visit to Canada
