The
monarchy of Canada also referred to as The
Crown in Right of Canada, Her Majesty in Right of
Canada, or The Queen in Right of Canada is the
constitutional system of government in
which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign
and head of state of Canada
, forming the
core, or "the most basic building block," of the country's Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The Crown is thus the foundation
of the
executive,
legislative, and
judicial branches of the
Canadian government, as well as the
kingpin of
Canadian
federalism.
While
Royal Assent and the royal sign-manual are required to enact
laws, letters patent, and Orders-in-Council, the authority for these
acts stems from the Canadian populace, and, within the conventional stipulations of
constitutional monarchy, the
sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of
governance is limited, with most related powers entrusted for
exercise by the elected and appointed parliamentarians
, the ministers of
the Crown generally drawn from amongst them, and the judges and Justices of the Peace.
The Crown today primarily functions as a guarantor of continuous
and stable governance and a
nonpartisan
safeguard against the abuse of power, the sovereign acting as a
custodian of the Crown's democratic powers and a representation of
the "power of the people above government and political
parties."
The Canadian monarchy has its roots in the
French and
British crowns, from which it
has evolved over numerous centuries to become a distinctly Canadian
institution one of the few crowns that have survived through
uninterrupted inheritance represented by
unique symbols, and sometimes being
colloquially dubbed the
Maple Crown. The Canadian monarch since 6
February 1952,
Elizabeth II is today
shared equally with
fifteen other countries within the
Commonwealth of Nations, all
being independent and the monarchy of each legally distinct. For
Canada, the monarch is officially titled
Queen of Canada
( ), and she, her
consort,
and other members of the
Canadian
Royal Family undertake various public and private functions
across Canada and on behalf of the country abroad. However, the
Queen is the only member of the Royal Family with any
constitutional role. While several
powers are the sovereign's alone, because she lives predominantly
in the United Kingdom, most of the royal constitutional and
ceremonial duties in Canada are carried out by the Queen's
representative, the
Governor
General; therefore, the Governor General is sometimes be
referred to as the
de
facto head of state. In each of
Canada's provinces, the
monarch is represented by a
Lieutenant Governor, while the
territories are not sovereign and thus do not have a
viceroy.
International and domestic aspects
- Further information: Commonwealth realm
> Relationship of the realms
Canada shares the same monarch with each of 15 monarchies in the
54-member
Commonwealth of
Nations, a grouping known informally as the
Commonwealth realms. The emergence of
this arrangement paralleled the evolution of
Canadian nationalism following the end
of the
First World War and culminated in
the passage of the
Statute
of Westminster in 1931, since when the pan-national Crown has
had both a shared and separate character, and the sovereign's role
as monarch of Canada has been distinct to his or her position as
monarch of the United Kingdom. The monarchy thus ceased to be an
exclusively British institution, and in Canada became a Canadian
establishment, though it is still often misnomered as "British" in
both legal and common language, for reasons historical, political,
and of convenience; this conflicts with not only the federal and
provincial governments' recognition and promotion of a distinctly
Canadian Crown, but also the
sovereign's distinct
Canadian title,
Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God,
of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories
Queen, Head of the
Commonwealth, Defender of the
Faith.
Effective with the
Constitution
Act, 1982, no British or other realm government can advise the
sovereign on any matters pertinent to Canada, meaning that on all
matters of the Canadian state, the monarch is advised solely by
Canadian federal
Ministers of the
Crown. As the monarch lives predominantly outside of Canada,
one of the most important of these state duties carried out on the
advice of the Canadian Prime Minister is the appointment of the
federal
viceroy, who is titled as
Governor
General, and performs most of the Queen's domestic duties
in her absence.
The sovereign similarly only draws from Canadian coffers for
support in the performance of her duties when in Canada or acting
as Queen of Canada abroad; Canadians do not pay any money to the
Queen or any other member of the Royal Family, either towards
personal income or to support royal residences outside of Canada.
Normally, tax dollars pay only for the costs associated with the
Governor General and ten Lieutenant Governors as instruments of the
Queen's authority, including travel, security, residences, offices,
ceremonies, and the like. In the absence of official reports on the
full cost of the monarchy, the
Monarchist League of Canada
regularly issues a survey based on various federal and provincial
budgets, expenditures, and estimates; the 2009 edition found that
the institution cost Canadians roughly $50 million in 2008.
Succession
Succession is by
male-preference
primogeniture governed by both the
Act of Settlement, 1701, and
Bill of Rights, 1689, legislation that
limits the succession to the natural (i.e. non-
adopted), legitimate descendants of
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and
stipulates that the monarch cannot be a
Roman Catholic, nor married to one, and must
be in communion with the
Church of
England upon ascending the throne; these particular clauses
have prompted
legal challenge.
Though,
via adopting the Statute of Westminster, these constitutional laws
as they apply to Canada now lie within the full control of the
Canadian
parliament, Canada also agreed not to change its rules of
succession without the unanimous consent of the other realms,
unless explicitly leaving the shared monarchy relationship; a
situation that applies symmetrically in all
the other realms, including the United Kingdom, and has been
likened to a treaty amongst these
countries. Thus, Canada's line of succession remains
identical to
that of
the United Kingdom; however, there is no provision in Canadian
law requiring that the King or Queen of Canada must be the same
person as the King or Queen of the United Kingdom; if the UK were
to breach the convention set out in the preamble to the Statute of
Westminster and unilaterally change the line of succession to the
British throne, the alteration would have no effect on the reigning
sovereign of Canada or his or her heirs and successors. As such,
the rules for succession are not fixed, but may be changed by a
constitutional amendment.
Upon a
demise of the
Crown (the death or abdication of a sovereign), the late
sovereign's heir immediately and automatically succeeds, without
any need for confirmation or further ceremony hence arises the
phrase "
The King
is dead. Long
live the King!."
It is customary, though, for the accession of
the new monarch to be publicly proclaimed by the Governor General on behalf of
the Queen's Privy
Council for Canada, which meets at Rideau Hall
after the accession. Following an
appropriate period of
mourning, the monarch
is also
crowned in
the United Kingdom in an ancient ritual, but one not necessary for
a sovereign to reign. Per the 1927 Act Respecting the Demise of the
Crown, no incumbent appointee of the Crown is affected by the death
of the monarch, though they are required to re-take the
Oath of Allegiance. By the
Interpretation Act of 2005, all references in legislation to
previous monarchs, whether in the masculine (e.g.
His
Majesty) or feminine (e.g.
the Queen), continue to
mean the reigning sovereign of Canada, regardless of his or her
gender. After an individual ascends the throne, he or she typically
continues to reign until death, being unable to unilaterally
abdicate per the tenets of constitutional monarchy.
Personification of the state
As the living
embodiment of
the Crown, the sovereign is regarded as the
personification, or
legal personality, of the Canadian
state, with the state therefore referred to as
Her Majesty The Queen in Right of Canada ( ), or
The
Crown.
As such, the monarch is the employer of all
government staff (including the viceroys, judges, members of the
Canadian Forces, police officers, and parliamentarians), the guardian of foster children (Crown wards), as well as the owner of all
state lands (Crown land),
buildings and equipment (Crown held property), state owned
companies (Crown
Corporations), and the copyright
for all government publications (Crown copyright). This is all in
his or her position as sovereign, and not as an individual; all
such property is held by the Crown in perpetuity and cannot be sold
by the sovereign without the proper advice and consent of his or
her ministers.
As the embodiment of the state, the monarch tops the
Canadian order of precedence,
and is also the locus of
oaths of allegiance, required of
many employees of the Crown, as well as by new
citizens, as per the
Oath of Citizenship laid out in
the
Citizenship Act. This
is done in
reciprocation to the
sovereign's
Coronation Oath, wherein he
or she promises "to govern the Peoples of... Canada... according to
their respective laws and customs."
Head of state
The sovereign is regarded as the
head of
state by official government sources and constitutional
scholars, while the Governor General and Lieutenant Governors are
all only representatives of, and thus equally subordinate to, that
figure. The Governor General, his or her staff, government
publications, and some constitutional scholars like
Edward McWhinney, have, however, referred to
the position of Governor General as that of Canada's head of state,
though sometimes qualilfying the assertion with
de facto or
effective, and since 1927
Governors General have been received on
state visits abroad as though they were heads of
state. Officials at Rideau Hall have pointed to the Letters Patent
of 1947 as justification for describing the Governor General as
Canada's head of state, but others countered that the document
makes no such distinction, either literally or implicitly. Michael
D. Jackson, former protocol officer for Saskatchewan, pointed out
that Rideau Hall had been attempting to "recast" the Governor
General as head of state since the 1970s, and that doing so
preempted both the Queen and all of the Lieutenant Governors, the
latter causing not only "precedence wars" at provincial events
(where the Governor General usurped the Lieutenant Governor's
proper spot as most senior official in attendance), but also
constitutional issues by "unbalancing[...] the federalist
symmetry." This has been regarded by some as a natural evolution,
and by others as a dishonest effort to alter the constitution
without public scrutiny. Still others view the role of head of
state as being shared by both the sovereign and her viceroys.
Constitutional role
Canada's constitution is made
up of a variety of statutes and conventions that are either
British, French, or Canadian in origin, and together give Canada a
parliamentary system of
government wherein the role of the Queen is both legal and
practical. The Crown is regarded as a
corporation, with the sovereign, vested as she
is with all powers of state, as the centre of a construct in which
the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of
government acting under the sovereign's authority; the Crown has
thus been described as the underlying principle of Canada's
institutional unity. Though her authority stems from
the people, all Canadians live under the
authority of the monarch, including anyone born in Canada, whether
to citizens or to landed migrants, who is then recognised per
common law as a natural-born subject of
the Crown. For Canadians, the monarch acts as a "guardian of
constitutional freedoms."
The vast powers that belong to the Crown are collectively known as
the
Royal Prerogative, the
exercise of which does not require parliamentary approval, though
it is not unlimited; for example, the monarch does not have the
prerogative to impose and collect new taxes without the
authorization of an
Act of
Parliament. The consent of the Crown must, however, be obtained
before either of the houses of parliament may even debate a bill
affecting the sovereign's prerogatives or interests, and no act of
parliament binds the Queen or her rights unless the act states that
it does. Further, the constitution instructs that any change to the
position of the monarch, or the monarch's representatives in
Canada, requires the consent of the
Senate, the
House of Commons, and the
legislative assemblies of all the provinces.
The Crown also sits at the pinnacle of the
Canadian Forces, with the constitution
placing the monarch in the position of
Commander-in-Chief of
the entire force, though the Governor General carries out the
duties attached to the position and also bears the title of
Commander-in-Chief in and Over Canada. Though the monarch
and members of her family also act as
Colonels-in-Chief of various regiments in
the military, these posts are only ceremonial in nature, reflecting
the Crown's
relationship with the military through participation in
military ceremonies both at home and abroad.
The monarch also
serves as the Honorary Commissioner of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police
.
Included in Canada's constitution are the various treaties with the
country's
First Nations,
Inuit, and
Métis peoples, who view these
documents as agreements directly between them and the reigning
monarch. These accords illustrate a
long
relationship between sovereign and aboriginals, which is based
on the Crown's responsibility to protect First Nations' territories
and act as a fiduciary between the government and aboriginal
peoples in Canada.
Executive (Queen-in-Council)
The
government of Canada
formally termed
Her
Majesty's Government is defined by the constitution as the
Queen acting on the advice of
her Privy Council; what is
technically known as the
Queen-in-Council,
or sometimes the
Governor-in-Council, referring to the
Governor General as the Queen's stand-in. One of the main duties of
the Crown is to "ensure that a democratically elected government is
always in place," which means appointing a
prime minister to thereafter head the
Cabinet a committee of the Privy
Council charged with
advising the Crown on the exercise
of the Royal Prerogative. The Queen is informed by her viceroy of
the swearing-in and resignation of prime ministers and other
members of the
ministry, remains
fully briefed through regular communications from her Canadian
ministers, and holds audience with them whenever possible.
In the construct of
constitutional monarchy and
responsible government, the
ministerial advice tendered is typically binding, meaning the
monarch
reigns but does not
rule; this has been
the case in Canada since the
Treaty of Paris ended the reign of
the territory's last
absolute
monarch,
King Louis XV. It is
important to note, however, that the Royal Prerogative belongs to
the Crown and not to any of the ministers, and the royal and
viceroyal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional
constitutional crisis
situations, threby allowing the monarch to make sure "that the
government conducts itself in compliance with the constitution."
There are also a few duties which must be specifically performed
by, or bills that require assent by, the Queen; these include
applying the
royal sign-manual and
Great Seal of Canada to the
appointment papers of governors general, the confirmation of awards
of
Canadian
honours, the approval of any change in her Canadian title, and
the creation of new Senate seats.
Foreign affairs
The Royal Prerogative also extends to foreign affairs: the
sovereign or, since 1978, the Governor General negotiates and
ratifies treaties, alliances, and international agreements, on the
advice of the Cabinet. The Governor General, on behalf of the
Queen, also accredits Canadian High Commissioners and ambassadors,
and receives similar diplomats from foreign states. These tasks
were solely in the domain of the sovereign until 1977, when, at the
direction of Prime Minister
Pierre
Trudeau, Queen Elizabeth II agreed to allow the Governor
General to perform these duties on her behalf, and in 2005 the
Letters of Credence and Recall
were altered so as to run in the name of the incumbent governor
general, instead of following the usual international process of
the letters being from one head of state to another. In addition,
the issuance of passports falls under the Royal Prerogative, and,
as such, all
Canadian passports
are issued in the monarch's name and remain her property.
Parliament (Queen-in-Parliament)
The
sovereign is one of the three components of parliament, and is formally called the Queen-in-Parliament, but the
monarch and viceroy do not participate in the legislative process
save for the granting of Royal Assent,
which is necessary for a bill to be enacted as law; either figure
or a delegate may perform this task, and the viceroy has the option
of deferring assent to the sovereign, as per the
constitution. The Governor General is further responsible
for summoning the House of Commons, while either the viceroy or
monarch can
prorogue and
dissolve the legislature, after
which the Governor General usually
calls for a general election. The new
parliamentary session is marked by either the monarch or the
Governor General reading the
Speech from the Throne; as the both
are traditionally barred from the House of Commons, this ceremony,
as well as the bestowing of Royal Assent, takes place in the Senate
chamber. Despite this exclusion, members of the commons must still
express their loyalty to the sovereign and defer to her authority,
as the Oath of Allegiance must be recited by all new
parliamentarians before they may take their seat, and the
official opposition is
traditionally dubbed as
Her
Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Courts (Queen-on-the-Bench)
The sovereign is responsible for rendering justice for all her
subjects, and is thus traditionally deemed the
fount of
justice, or more officially, the
Queen on the Bench. However, she does not
personally rule in judicial cases; instead the judicial functions
of the Royal Prerogative are performed in trust and in the Queen's
name by Officers of Her Majesty's Court. These individuals enjoy
the privilege granted conditionally by the sovereign to be free
from criminal and civil liability for unsworn statements made
within the court. This privilege extends from the notion in common
law that the sovereign "can do no wrong"; the monarch cannot be
prosecuted in her own courts for criminal offences. Civil lawsuits
against the Crown in its public capacity (that is, lawsuits against
the Queen-in-Council) are permitted; however, lawsuits against the
monarch personally are not cognizable. In international cases, as a
sovereign and under established principals of
international law, the Queen of Canada is
not subject to suit in foreign courts without her express consent.
The monarch, and by extension the Governor General, also grants
immunity from prosecution, exercises the
Royal Prerogative of Mercy, and may
pardon offences against the Crown, either before, during, or after
a trial.
As the judges and courts are the sovereign's judges and courts, and
as all law in Canada derives from the Crown, the monarch stands to
give legitimacy to courts of justice, and is the source of their
judicial authority. An image of the Queen and/or the
Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Canada is
always displayed in Canadian federal courtrooms.
Itinerant judges will display an image of the
Queen and the
Canadian flag when
holding a session away from established courtrooms; such situations
occur in parts of Canada where the stakeholders in a given court
case are too isolated geographically to be able to travel for
regular proceedings.
Provinces
The Canadian monarchy is a
federal
one in which the Crown is unitary throughout all jurisdictions
in the country, with the
headship of
state being a part of all equally. As such, the sovereignty of
the provinces is passed on not by the Governor General or federal
parliament, but through the overreaching Crown itself as a part of
the executive, legislative, and judicial operations in each
province. Though singular, linking the federal and provincial
governments into a federal state, the Crown is thus "divided" into
eleven legal jurisdictions, or eleven "crowns" one federal and ten
provincial. The
Fathers of
Confederation viewed the system of constitutional monarchy as a
bulwark against any potential fracturing of the
Canadian federation.
A
Lieutenant Governor
serves as the Queen's representative in each province, carrying out
all the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties of state on
her behalf.
The Commissioners
of Canada's territories of Nunavut
, Yukon
, and
Northwest
Territories
are appointed by the Governor-in-Council, at the
recommendation of the federal Minister
of Indian Affairs and Northern Development; but, as the
territories are not sovereign entities, the commissioners are not
representatives of the sovereign.
Cultural role
Royal presence and duties
Members of the Royal Family have been present in Canada since the
late 1700s, their reasons including participating in military
manoeuvres, serving as the federal viceroy, or undertaking
official royal tours. A prominent
feature of the latter are numerous
royal walkabouts, the tradition
of which was initiated in 1939 by
Queen Elizabeth when she was in Ottawa
and broke from the royal party to speak directly to gathered
veterans. Usually important milestones, anniversaries, or
celebrations of
Canadian culture
will warrant the presence of the monarch, while other royals will
be asked to participate in lesser occasions. A
household to assist and tend
to the monarch will form part of the royal party.
Official duties involve the sovereign representing the
Canadian state at home or abroad, or her relations as members of
the
Canadian Royal Family
participating in government organized ceremonies either in Canada
or elsewhere. The advice of the Canadian Cabinet is the impetus for
royal participation in any Canadian event, though, at present, the
Chief of Protocol and his staff in the
Department of Canadian
Heritage are, as part of the State Ceremonial and Canadian
Symbols Program, responsible for orchestrating any official events
in or for Canada that involve the Royal Family. Such events have
included centennials and bicentennials;
Canada Day; the openings of
Pan American,
Olympic, and other games; anniversaries of
First Nations
treaty signings;
awards ceremonies;
D-Day
commemorations; anniversaries of the monarch's accession; and the
like. Conversely,
unofficial duties are performed by Royal
Family members on behalf of Canadian organizations of which they
may be
patrons, through their attendance
at charity events, visiting with members of the
Canadian Forces as
Colonel-in-Chief, or marking certain key
anniversaries. The invitation and expenses associated with these
undertakings are usually borne by the associated organization. In
2005 members of the Royal Family were present at a total of 76
Canadian engagements, as well as several more through 2006 and
2007.
Apart from Canada, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family
regularly perform public duties in the other fifteen nations of the
Commonwealth in which the Queen is head of state. This situation,
however, can mean the monarch and/or members of the Royal Family
will be promoting one nation and not another; a situation that has
been met with criticism.
Symbols, associations, and awards
The main symbol of the monarchy is the sovereign herself, described
as "the personal expression of the Crown in Canada," and her image
is thus used to signify government authority her
effigy, for instance, appearing on
currency, and her portrait in government
buildings and Canadian sovereignty. A
royal
cypher or crown is also used to illustrate the monarchy as the
locus of authority, the latter without referring to any specific
monarch. The former appears on buildings and official
seals, and the latter on provincial and
national coats of arms, as
well as
police force and
Canadian Forces regimental and maritime
badges and rank insignia. The sovereign will also appear in person
to represent the Canadian nation, and is both mentioned in and the
subject of
songs,
loyal
toasts, and salutes.
The Queen is the fount of all
honours in Canada,
and new orders, decorations, and medals may only be created with
the approval of the sovereign through letters patent. Hence, the
insignia and medallions for these awards bear a crown, cypher,
and/or effigy of the monarch. Similarly,
the country's heraldic authority
was created by the Queen in 1988, and, operating under the
authority of the Governor General, grants new
coats of arms (armorial bearings),
flags, and
badges to
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and corporate bodies. Use
of the royal crown in such symbols is a gift from the monarch
showing royal support and/or association, and requires her approval
before being added.
Besides
government and military institutions, a number of Canadian civilian
organizations have association with the monarchy, either through
their being founded via a Royal
Charter (such as the Hudson's
Bay Company, the city of Saint John, New Brunswick
, Scouts Canada, and
McGill
University
), having
been granted the right to
use the prefix royal before their name (such as the
Royal Ottawa Golf Club and
the Royal Canadian
Regiment), or because at least one member of the Royal Family
serves as a patron.
Some charities and volunteer organizations have also been founded
as gifts to, or in honour of, some of Canada's monarchs or members
of the Royal Family, such as the
Victorian Order of Nurses (a gift
to Queen Victoria for her
Diamond
Jubilee in 1897), the Canadian Cancer Fund (set up in honour of
King George V's
Silver
Jubilee in 1935), and the Queen Elizabeth II Fund to Aid in
Research on the Diseases of Children. A number of awards in Canada
are similarly issued in the name of previous or present members of
the Royal Family.
Further, organizations will give
commemorative gifts to members of the Royal Family to mark a visit
or other important occasion, such as the tapestry of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police badge presented to the Queen by the RCMP after she
approved the new design in Regina, Saskatchewan
, on 4 July 1973.
Canadian Royal Family
The
Canadian Royal Family is a group of people
related to the monarch of Canada. There is no strict legal or
formal definition of who is or is not a member of the group, though
the
Department of
Canadian Heritage maintains a list of immediate members, and
the
Department
of National Defence stipulates that those in the direct line of
succession who bear the
style of
Royal Highness
(
Altesse Royale) are subjects of, and owe their allegiance
to, the reigning sovereign specifically as King or Queen of Canada,
entitling them to
Canadian
consular assistance and to the protection of the Queen's
armed forces of Canada when they are
outside of the Commonwealth realms and in need of protection or
aid.
Given the shared nature of the Canadian monarch, most members of
the Canadian Royal Family are also members of the
British Royal Family and thus the
House of Windsor, as well as the
distant relations of the
Greek,
Danish,
Spanish, and
Belgian Royal Families and include
lineage from, amongst others,
French,
Italian,
Hungarian,
Portuguese,
Cuman,
Norwegian,
Swedish,
German,
Serbian,
Armenian,
Arab, and
Mongolian ethnicities. However, because Canada and
the UK are independent of one another, it is incorrect to refer in
the Canadian context to the family of the monarch as the "British
Royal Family" as is frequently done by Canadian and other media and
there exist some differences between the official lists of each:
for instance, while he never held the style
His Royal
Highness,
Angus Ogilvy was
included in the Department of Canadian Heritage's royal family
list, but was not considered a member of the British Royal Family.
Additionally, unlike in the United Kingdom,
the monarch is the only member of the Royal Family in Canada with a
title
established through law; it would be possible for others to be
granted distinctly Canadian titles (as is the case for the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland
), but they have always been, and continue to only
be, accorded the use of a courtesy
title, which is that they have been granted via Letters Patent in the United Kingdom, though
they are also in Canada translated to
French.File:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|thumb|right|Most members of the
Royal Family gathered for a dinner celebrating the 60th wedding
anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.circle
203 153 28
The
Queencircle 281 147 28
The Duke of Edinburghcircle
136 140 28
The Prince of
Walescircle 358 150 28
The Duchess of Cornwallcircle
43 141 28
Prince William of
Walescircle 420 141 30
Prince
Henry of Walescircle 262 90 22
The Duke of Yorkcircle 214 100
22
Princess Beatrice of
Yorkcircle 316 102 22
Princess Eugenie of Yorkcircle 364
89 20
The Earl of
Wessexcircle 433 102 20
The Countess of Wessexcircle 100
93 20
The Princess Royalcircle
78 66 16
Peter Phillipscircle 158 97
20
Zara Phillipscircle 455 67 20
The Duke of
Gloucestercircle 402 82 16
The Duchess of
Gloucestercircle 276 53 16
The Duke of Kentcircle 188 62 20
Prince Michael of Kentcircle
233 69 20
Princess Michael of
Kentcircle 316 64 16
Princess
Alexandra
Though the group is predominantly based in the United Kingdom, the
sovereign and those amongst her relations who do not meet the
requirements of Canadian citizenship law are still not considered
foreign to Canada; as early as 1959, it was recognised that the
Queen was "equally at home in all her realms." Rather, as legal
subjects of the country's monarch, the Royal Family holds a unique
position reflected in the confusion that sometimes arises around
the awarding of honours to them.
The only Canadian citizens within the
Canadian Royal Family were married into it: In 1988, Sylvana Jones (née
Tomaselli in Placentia, Newfoundland
) wed George Windsor, Earl of St
Andrews, a great-grandson of King George V; and on 18 May
2008, Autumn Kelly, originally from
Montreal
, married Queen Elizabeth II's eldest grandson,
Peter Phillips. Beyond
legalities, members of the Royal Family have also, on occasion,
declared themselves to be Canadian, and some members have lived in
Canada for extended periods as viceroy or for other reasons. Still,
the existence of a Canadian Royal Family is contested, mostly by
individuals in Canada's fringe
republican movement, but also by
former
Lieutenant Governor of
British Columbia Iona
Campagnolo, and poet
George
Elliott Clarke publicly mused about a fully
First Nations royal family for Canada.
According to the
Canadian
Royal Heritage Trust,
Prince
Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn due to his having
lived in Canada between 1791 and 1800, and fathering
Queen Victoria is the
"ancestor of the modern Canadian Royal Family." Nonetheless, the
concept of the Canadian Royal Family did not emerge until after the
passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, when Canadian
officials only began to overtly consider putting the principles of
Canada's new status as an independent
kingdom into effect.
At first, the monarch
was the only member of the Royal Family to carry out public
ceremonial duties solely on the advice of Canadian ministers;
King Edward VIII
became the first to do so when in July 1936 he dedicated the
Canadian
National Vimy Memorial
in France one of his few obligations performed
during his short reign. Over the decades, however, the
monarch's children, grandchildren, cousins, and their respective
spouses began to also perform functions at the direction of the
Canadian Crown-in-Council, representing the monarch within Canada
or abroad.
By the 1960s, loyal societies in Canada
recognized the Queen's cousin, Princess
Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, as a "Canadian
princess"; but, it was not until October 2002 when the term
Canadian Royal Family was first used publicly and
officially by a member of it: in a speech to the Nunavut
legislature
at its opening, Queen Elizabeth II stated: "I am
proud to be the first member of the Canadian Royal Family to be
greeted in Canada's newest territory." The press frequently
follows the movements of the Royal Family, and can, at times,
affect the group's popularity, which has fluctuated over the years.
Mirroring the mood in the United Kingdom, the family's lowest
approval was during the mid-1980s to 1990s, when the children of
the monarch were enduring their
divorces and
were the targets of negative
tabloid
reporting.
Residences and royal household
Rideau Hall, the monarch's principal
Canadian residence, though foremostly that of the Governor
General.
A number of buildings across Canada are reserved by the Crown for
the use of the monarch and her viceroys.
The sovereign's
primary official residence, as well as that primarily used by the
Governor General, is Rideau
Hall, located in Ottawa
, Ontario
, and another principal residence of the Governor
General is the Citadelle
, in Quebec
City
. Each of these royal seats holds pieces from
the Crown Collection, made up of antique and contemporary furniture
and works of art from each province and territory of Canada, as
well as Europe, Asia, and other regions, the majority of which came
from donations to the Canada Fund.
The provinces of British
Columbia
, Manitoba
, Nova
Scotia
, New
Brunswick
, Newfoundland
and Labrador
, and Prince Edward Island
also maintain residences for the sovereign, though
they are used primarily by the respective Lieutenant
Governor. Further, though neither was ever used for
their intended purpose, Hatley
Castle
in British Columbia was purchased in 1940 by King
George VI in Right of Canada to use as his home during the course
of World War II, and the Emergency Government Headquarters, built in
1959 at CFS
Carp
and decommissioned in 1994, included a residential
apartment for the sovereign or Governor General in the case of a
nuclear attack on Ottawa.
Monarchs
and members of their family have also owned in a private capacity
homes and land in Canada: King Edward VIII owned
Bedingfield Ranch, near Pekisko,
Alberta; The
Marquess of Lorne and Princess Louise owned a
cottage on the Cascapédia
River in Quebec
; and
Princess
Margaret owned Portland Island between its gifting to her
during a trip to the province in 1958 and her death in 2002, though
she offered it on permanent loan to the Crown in Right of British
Columbia in 1966, and the island and surrounding waters
eventually became Princess Margaret Marine Park.
To assist the Queen in carrying out her official duties on behalf
of Canada, she appoints various people to her Canadian
household. Along with the
Canadian Secretary to
the Queen, the monarch's entourage includes two
Ladies-in-Waiting, the
Canadian Equerry-in-Waiting to the Queen, the
Queen's Police Officer, the Duke of Edinburgh's Police Officer, the
Queen's Honorary Physician, the Queen's Honorary Dental Surgeon,
and the Queen's Honorary Nursing Sister the latter three being
drawn from the
Canadian Forces.
There are
also three Household Regiments
specifically attached to the Royal Household (the Governor General's Foot
Guards, the
Governor General's Horse Guards, and the Canadian Grenadier
Guards), as well as two Chapels
Royal in Ontario the The Queen's
Chapel of the Mohawks, built in 1785 in Brantford
, and Christ
Church, Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, founded in
1784 and rebuilt in 1843 near Deseronto
. Both were granted the status of Royal
Chapel by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
History
The Canadian monarchy can trace its ancestral lineage back to the
kings of the Angles and
the early
Scottish kings,
through centuries since parts of the territories that today
comprise Canada were claimed by
King
Francis I in 1534, and others by
Queen Elizabeth I in 1583; both being
blood relatives of the current
Canadian monarch. Though the first French and British colonizers of
Canada interpreted the hereditary nature of some indigenous
North American chieftainships as a
form of monarchy, it is generally accepted that Canada has been a
territory of a monarch or a monarchy in its own right only since
the establishment of
New France in the
early 17th century.
After the Canadian colonies of France were, via war and treaties,
ceded to the British Crown, and the population was greatly expanded
by
those loyal to George III
fleeing north from persecution during and following the
American Revolution,
British North America was in 1867
confederated by
Queen Victoria to form Canada
as a
kingdom in its own right. By the end
of the
First World War, the
increased fortitude of
Canadian
nationalism inspired the country's leaders to push for greater
independence from the King in his British Council, resulting in the
creation of the uniquely Canadian monarchy through the
Statute of Westminster, which
was granted Royal Assent in 1931. Only five years later, Canada had
three successive kings in the space of one year, with the death of
George V, the
accession and
abdication of
Edward VIII, and his
replacement by
George
VI.
The latter became in 1939 the first reigning monarch of Canada to
tour the country (though previous kings had done so before their
accession). As the ease of travel increased,
visits by the sovereign and other Royal
Family members became more frequent and involved, seeing Queen
Elizabeth II officiate at various moments of importance in the
nation's history, one being when she proclaimed the country to be
fully independent, via
constitutional patriation, in 1982.
That act is said to have entrenched the monarchy in Canada, due to
the stringent requirements, as laid out in the amending formula,
that must be met in order to alter the monarchy in any way.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, the rise of
Quebec nationalism and changes in
Canadian identity created an
atmosphere where the purpose and role of the monarchy
came into question. Some
references to the monarch and the monarchy were removed from the
public eye, and moves were made by the federal government to
constitutionally alter the Crown's place and role in Canada; but,
provincial and federal ministers, along with loyal
national citizen's organisations,
ensured that the system remained the same in essence. By 2002, the
year of the royal tour and associated
fêtes for
the Queen's Golden
Jubilee proved popular with Canadians across the country.
Debate
To date, outside of academic circles, there has been little
national
debate on the
Canadian monarchy, a subject of which most Canadians are
generally unaware. Neither of Canada's two most prominent political
parties the
Liberal Party
and the
Conservative
Party is officially in favour of abolishing the monarchy,
though the latter makes support for constitutional monarchy a
founding principle in its policy declaration, and the
New Democratic Party (NDP) has no
official position on the role of the Crown. Only some Members of
Parliament belonging to these parties, and the leaders of the
Bloc Québécois, Canada has
two special-interest groups representing the debate, who frequently
argue the issue in the media: the
Monarchist League of Canada and
Citizens for a Canadian
Republic. There are also other loyal organizations, such as the
United Empire Loyalists'
Association of Canada, the
Canadian Royal Heritage Trust,
and the
Orange Order in
Canada.
See also
Notes
Citations
References
Further information
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