The Thrill Is Gone

Happy Victoria Day! Be happy because it’s a day off. Be happy because it’s now summer… except here, where it’s raining, which doesn’t count.

But whatever you do, don’t be happy because of Victoria.

I’m not a big fan of monarchy. In fact, I think I’ve been a member of Citizens for a Canadian Republic for over half my life by now.

There are a lot of perfectly good reasons to distrust monarchy. Some are universal, some are limited to the present system. For example, there is the “they aren’t really Canadian” argument. But I think I’d be opposed to a local monarchy just as much. And there’s disliking one particular monarch or heir, but I can’t think of anyone I’d like all that much.

More generally there’s the basic principle of not entrusting anyone with political power unless there are ways to get rid of them. With elected officials, you can vote the bums out, at least eventually. Even those positions that aren’t term-limited have to face the music eventually. With monarchies the traditional way to remove a disliked ruler is by decapitation, but I don’t think that would work very well these days. Plus I’m generally against the death penalty anyway.

The counterargument to that last point is that our monarchs don’t have any real power anyway… but all you need to do is look at Charles’s declassified correspondences to disprove that. Actually, you don’t even need to read them. The simple fact of having classified communication channels to high levels of government is proof enough. A truly powerless monarch would be treated by the government in exactly the same way as the King of Pop or B.B. King (RIP).

I think the only monarchy I’d accept is one where I’m the king… and as long as there’s at least one other person with the same opinion that makes it poor system.