I have been shocked, shocked, recently to see questions being asked about why King Charles has not weighed in to defend Canada against the Trumpazoid threats and insults. The Toronto Star columnist Rosie Dimanno was recently demanding he save us. And the usually sound Ottawa journalist Dale Smith declared it was not yet time for his intervention (and the government would have to ask him first), but it might be needed soon.
Surely any time sooner than never would be too soon. Involving the British King would only confirm American illusions about the colonial status of Canada and our "need" to be given American "freedom." Whatever we do, we need to do this ourselves.
We did not import any British hockey stars last night, did we?
I have no desire to change our structure of government, not much anyway. But the royal family... is foreign. Full stop. The aristocracy with the king at its centre, is part and parcel of British society and culture; the titled elite still owns half the land of Britain, is still prominent in society, business, the arts, and much else. The king and royal family make sense in that context, but in any other context.
Nothing is more alien to Canada, nothing is more foreign. It just doesn't work here. The "Crown," meaning abstractly the federal or provincial state (as in Crown land, Crown prosecutor, Crown corporation), works well enough in Canadian parlance. But the Crowns federal and provincial are ours, are us. This gent over in Buck House.... no, just no.
