What makes this sideshow all the more embarrassing is that there's been a complete breakdown in the Chief's relationship with the one independent agency whose power actually does matter -- the press. The indifferent contempt in which she has so consistently held the press is beginning to return in kind. You can almost hear her 15 minutes ticking away. To put it bluntly, you can't just do this.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making a trip to New York this week, but it isn't to attend a United Nations meeting to which Canada was extended an invitation. The Prime Minister will instead be in the glitzy hotel, where he is due to receive an award from the little-known Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interfaith partnership of corporate and religious leaders. Between the successive fossil awards for environmental savagery and the unfortunate de-funding of reproductive health in foreign aid, the Harper government continues to slide Canada's international influence down to the gutter.
Minister Baird and British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced plans on Monday to merge British and Canadian embassies. To be precise, Minister Baird framed the suspicious measure as sharing. Reminiscent of the Napster file-sharing tool online, the open exchange of diplomatic duties across international jurisdictions does not inspire confidence. The idea, packaged and sold to Canadians as a cost-saving measure, flies in the face of common sense and gives off a hint of hypocrisy to a government saddled with billion dollar boondoggles in the form of G20 Summit and the never-ending money pit labeled the F-35 jets.
It was disgusting, disgraceful and despicable to say the least to see the photoes of the naked prince which went viral online and around the world. If that is how members of the royal family behave, then Canadians would be far better to operate the vehicle themselves without anyone else telling them what to do.
Why does Stephen Harper have such a sudden attachment to the Queen that he neglected to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Does he despise so much our Constitution and the law generally? Was it to please Ontarians and gain seats in Ontario? Or is it just pure opportunism and hypocrisy?
At the 2010 Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill, Elizabeth started her speech by addressing the 100,000-strong audience as "fellow Canadians..." She's custodian of the Canadian Crown's democratic powers and represents the "power of the people above government and political parties." Which makes her our chief watchdog -- if mostly absent and toothless.
It is no secret that the idea of amalgamating into a single country, which was farthest away from the minds of the rulers of these countries, was only contemplated as a direct result of the Arab Spring which toppled several Arab dictators who were thought to be completely invincible, and left the rest of them asking "Who will be next?" Now more than ever, a union of the Arab Gulf states is possible.
The monarchy has no business having any business in a democratic country such as Canada. We are an independent nation of Canadians first and foremost, and should not be subjugated to professing our love, let alone allegiance to some woman (for that is what she is, some woman) across the Atlantic, living in a palace.
I am enjoying all the debate that Harper's addition of the word "Royal" to our navy and air force has created. Some suggest that Harper is trying to recast our history so that it is seen from a conservative slant. But there is nothing wrong with knowing and understanding our history and that includes our symbols and traditions.