Queen Elizabeth Tours As Government Teeters
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
TORONTO, May 16 -- As the government of Canada teeters toward possible collapse this week, its queen will be on a tour of the Canadian west, watching native dancers in buckskin and feathers, unveiling a museum plaque and admiring a statue of herself on a horse named Burmese.
If the Ottawa government falls in a no-confidence vote in Parliament Thursday -- and the vote looks as if it will be very close -- Prime Minister Paul Martin will call on the queen's representative in Ottawa to formally launch a federal election.
The queen's schedule of dinners, dedications and parades in Saskatchewan and Alberta should remain undisturbed, however. The head of state will have nothing to do with the state of affairs.
The coincidence of the potential fall of the Martin government and the nine-day visit that starts Tuesday by Elizabeth II -- whose other titles include queen of England -- is serving as a reminder of the British royal underpinnings of this country's government.
"I'm happy the queen will be here when the government may fall. It's a great civics lesson," said John Aimers, head of the Monarchist League of Canada, a group of defenders of the royalty.
The lesson is needed, he said, because so many Canadians remain unaware that their vibrant democracy is still headed by a queen. This ignorance persists despite the ubiquitous reminders: Elizabeth's silhouette is on every coin; criminals are charged by Crown prosecutors after arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; immigrants who obtain citizenship pledge their "loyalty and allegiance to Canada and Her Majesty Elizabeth II, queen of Canada."
While its southern neighbor evicted British rule with violence, Canada's own independence has been evolutionary. In 1867 it became a semi-autonomous "dominion"; in 1931 it was formally sanctioned as an independent member of the Commonwealth; in 1964 the British Union Jack came off the Canadian flag; and in 1982 Canada took complete control of its laws. The sovereign receded to a figurehead role.
The relationship between Canada and the royals is "a delicate balance of reciprocal illusions," author Peter C. Newman observed bluntly a decade ago. "The Royals would visit Canada once in a while and pretend to enjoy it, and Canadians expected nothing much of them."
Still, enough Canadians have fond remembrances of life as British subjects that the visit this week by Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is creating a stir in the two western provinces that celebrate their centennials this summer.
Schoolchildren are practicing their performances, soldiers of the King's Own Calgary and two other Canadian regiments of which the queen is colonel-in-chief are polishing their boots for an inspection, and scientists at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon are fine-tuning a giant microscope to show her.
There is enough goodwill toward Elizabeth that the Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, accused Martin of delaying the vote on his government until Thursday "so that the prime minister can use the queen as a prop" in photo opportunities.
Undoubtedly, Martin will do that, but the votes by lawmakers in Ottawa are unlikely to change. Political nose-counters say the prime minister's government may -- at best -- survive on a tie vote broken by the speaker of the House, a member of Martin's Liberal Party. More likely, they say, the government will fall by one or two votes in the 308-seat House.
If it does collapse, Martin will go to the queen's official representative, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, to obtain her permission to hold an election and try to form a new government. The election would likely be held June 27.
Some backroom conspiracy theorists envision the governor general using her royal powers to dismiss the government on her own, or offering the Conservatives a chance to form a government without an election. But that would be hugely unpopular.
"The monarchy in Canada is largely symbolic. And the governor general has to be careful to keep it that way," said Grace Skogstad, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
Public opinion polls show that Canadians are deeply ambivalent about the monarchy. Nearly half think it is outmoded, and almost two-thirds believe the royals should play no role in Canada's government. Yet four out of five believe in Canada's current system of government, which is based on the sovereignty of the queen.
"The numbers tell us Canadians think the situation should change and stay the same at the same time," concludes a newly published volume called "What Canadians Think About Almost Everything" by Darrell Bricker and John Wright of the polling organization Ipsos-Reid. The conclusions come from results of numerous polls conducted in recent years.
There have been periodic proposals to replace the queen with an elected head of state, but there has never been much enthusiasm for the battle; Canada has never had a referendum on the question. Such a fundamental change in the constitution would require approval by every province, a tough political hurdle.
"The queen represents things we agree on: rule of law, tradition, respect for each other, tolerance, a sense of duty and commitment," said Aimers of the Monarchist League. Canadians seem pleased enough to keep that touchstone, in part because the system helps define Canada distinctly from the United States, he added.
In addition, Elizabeth herself is liked: According to Ipsos-Reid, 84 percent of Canadians believe the queen has done a good job.
"She is not revered, but she is seen not to get in the way, and as someone who does her job well," Skogstad said. "There's no burning desire to get rid of the monarchy."
In 22 prior trips to Canada throughout her 52-year reign, the queen has endeared herself to Canadians not unlike the way President John F. Kennedy did in Berlin by declaring himself a Berliner.
"I am getting to know our country rather well," she observed while in Canada in 1978. Five years later, she noted during a trip to California, "I am going home to Canada tomorrow."