A lot of us will grudgingly admit that the constitutional niceties should to be followed. But practically nobody in Canada has any serious commitment to Charles as their sacred liege lord. It's all just rote, and GG and PMs endorse it fingers crossed, while whispering "I'm not really a monarchist, I'm not." Quebec's lieutenant governor shrugs and grins and says What can I do?
Plamondon can hardly lose by poking all that pretension, even when he loses in the courts. The way to take the wind out of his sails in this stunt, surely, is to join him in it.
Let Prime Minister Carney and a few enlightened premiers propose a proper constitutional amendment declaring the throne of Canada vacant and empowering the Governor General to exercise all the power formerly accruing to the monarch. And the thing is done. Excise the foreigner wearing the crown and there's no great problem in leaving "the Crown" in place: Crown lands, and Crown corporations, and Crown attorneys. Let the (empty) Crown symbolize Canadian sovereignty, and the sovereignty of each province too, and what's not to like.
Premier Plamondon would be left trying to complain about a revised oath to Canada and finding that tactic no more popular than his proposal for a third referendum .
