I once had dinner with the Queen. Well, me and several hundred of her closest friends and confidants in Edmonton, including politicians, journalists and other ne’er-do-wells. It was May 25, 2005, and the “gala” event inside the cavernous Northlands AgriCom (now the Edmonton Expo Centre) had all the intimacy of an aircraft hangar—and I never actually met the Queen.
I went because I had been invited as someone covering her trip. Besides, how often does the Queen visit Alberta? Well, six times, including a 1951 trip while she was still a mere princess.
Every trip generated a media circus of adoring crowds and gushing coverage. Even the cynical British press—always on the lookout for a gaffe—remarked how the Canadian crowds, particularly in Alberta, were the largest and friendliest outside of the United Kingdom despite the miserable weather that dogged the 2005 visit.
It was all a bit peculiar for a province that prides itself as home to self-made pioneers and defenders of free enterprise who despise government handouts. The Queen never started a business or won a Stanley Cup, and when it came to government handouts nobody was “on the dole” like Her Majesty, who in the 2021–22 fiscal year received the equivalent of $150-million CAD from the British government to support the Royal Family.
Her position as our head of state is almost all symbolic, her powers largely ceremonial, but there was no mistaking the warmth the Queen received from Albertans in 2005. As I noted at the time in a column for the Edmonton Journal, none of the other members of the Royal Family were as popular as she was, or as controversy-free. When the time comes, I wondered, who will wait in the rain for King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla?
Once a supporter of our constitutional monarchy, I began to wonder if it was time to cut ourselves free of a monarchical system that is not only Christian-centric but derives its power from, among other things, exploitation, racism and imperialism—which, come to think of it, are three words meaning the same thing.
Perhaps it was time for Canada to grow up and become a republic?
An angry and loud segment of our population doesn’t seem to know where Canada ends and the US begins.
That’s what I thought—until along came Donald Trump and his destructive attacks on US institutions, respected news outlets and even the rule of law. All of this bled into Canada with the rise of Pierre Poilievre federally and Danielle Smith provincially. Poilievre and Smith saluted the angry truckers’ blockades, bristled at pandemic restrictions, vilified news media they don’t like and, in the case of Smith in particular, argued for Alberta to ignore federal laws.
An angry and loud segment of our population doesn’t seem to know where Canada ends and the US begins—a horde that thinks we live in a country dedicated to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” where we have a right to bear arms and “plead the fifth.” Our Canadian institutions, including the Bank of Canada and federal–provincial relations, are under threat as they face a hurricane of abuse and disrespect generated by a mob that is, to put it mildly, uncivil.
What we need is shelter from the storm. Or at least a breakwater, some form of protection against the tides of chaos beating up against our political and social foundations. What we need is something strong, resilient and the epitome of civility. Yes, despite my nascent republican leanings, something like a symbolic head of state whose role is to remain separate from partisan politics (unlike in the US, where the president is also head of state).
Something like a queen or a king.
But King Charles cannot simply continue where his mother left off. For all the historical faults and injustices inflicted by the Crown over the centuries, the Queen managed to maintain her popularity and protect her own institution through a selfless devotion to duty aided by a public infatuated with pomp and ceremony.
Charles has become king at a time when those faults and injustices, most notably against Indigenous peoples, are driving the political narrative. According to public opinion polls, the monarchy is safe in the UK, but it is increasingly being questioned by citizens of Commonwealth countries, notably Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica, which have talked openly about holding referendums to ditch the monarch and become republics. Barbados dropped the monarchy in 2021.
We haven’t reached that point in Canada. Yet. Perhaps we never will.
Much now depends on how King Charles will reign and how Canadians will react to their new monarch. He will need to prove the Crown can continue to evolve in the 21st century while also defending something as old, steady and comforting as peace, order and good government.
Graham Thomson is a political analyst, member of the Legislature Press Gallery and former Edmonton Journal political columnist.
