Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: "Discarding Canada’s figurehead," Feb. 28, 2002,
I’m always amused by complaints about the antique armour in the hallowed halls of government. I’m referring to the English monarchs, who happen to be British-English at this time.
It’s easier to tear something down than to build something up, and there’s always a mess to clean up afterwards. If your columnists wish to be resoponsible for the clean up, then by all means, take the monarchy and throw it out the window. Referring to the monarchy as obsolete is like referring to flint as "so neanderthal." It is redundant to remind us that the monarch hasn’t exactly ruled since becoming constitutional (ca. Magna Carta) and is almost entirely ceremonial.
If you’re not English by way of mother tongue, then you can’t possibly appreciate English heritage as much as your own. True, we should be fair to all in this country by keeping our cultural past private, but then we should stop singing the national anthem, print only French on our cereal boxes, remove "God" from government documents, remove leafs and colours from flags and then perhaps we could all go around wearing bags over our heads.
Moreover, it’s very common for anti-monarchs to spell "freedom" r-e-p-u-b-l-i-c. Personally, I believe a republican democratic system should be directly ratified by the people in conjunction with the elected representatives, direct democracy, but that’s not too trendy an opinion these days. And I’m sure any president, prime minister, religious leader, tribal chief, emperor, dictator du jour or your favorite oligarchist otherwise would disagree to any such populist notion due to fear of the masses. On the other hand, who gives a damn what the Queen and her boys have to say about it? They’re just museum pieces who capitulate ad hoc regardless.
Given the benefits of rule under the crown-there are many, though I don’t have time to argue-I’d hate to see the crown simply dismissed in exchange for something less valuable, like a "republic" run via the system of a limited representative democracy. Not that we should fix anything that isn’t broken, though. We’re not broken, right?