Windsor incompetence in judging the public impact of their bungling ways runs consistently through this soap opera’s serial episodes, back to the Royal Family’s incomprehension of the significance of Princess Diana’s death, and so much more.
Now reigning longer than any other British monarch, Elizabeth II earned a reservoir of respect and admiration while transitioning from an era of deference in the early 1950s to today when public attitudes challenge all authority. Harry’s shift reflects the fragmentation now breaking the Royal Family, displays the different values of rising generations, and offers a foretaste of the shambles awaiting the crumbling House of Windsor. Australians, though preoccupied with more immediate fires, renew their referendum-approved quest to scrap the Crown.
That helps sharpen perspective on our own future as a “constitutional monarchy.” The Crown’s once absolute powers have been well constrained within the bounds of constitutional government, with no one above the rule of law. The working side of government is handled by our elected representatives; the symbolic aspects, and little else, performed by whoever’s wearing the Crown. For the past 66 years, that’s been Harry Windsor’s grandma.
Muskokans are embedded in this evolution on many levels. Last week discussing with president of the Muskoka Bar Association Val Tingey renovations in the District Court House for the barrister’s gowning chambers, she instinctively noted that a picture of Queen Elizabeth II would be on the wall. After all, in that courthouse criminal prosecutions are taken in the name of the Crown, and by Crown attorneys.
Elsewhere, land owned by the government is Crown Land. Government satellite operations are Crown Corporations. Legislation enacted in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park cannot become law until signed by the Crown’s representative. Principal Ontario roadways are designated King’s Highways and one, the Queen Elizabeth Way. And governments shield their mistakes behind a doctrine of Crown Immunity. So we are clearly in harness, at least constitutionally and in official acts of state.
Yet even this is less evident today than fifty years ago. “Royal” has been dropped from the mail service, loosened in relation to armed forces, and sidelined in government communications – all reflecting a shift in Canadian values.
As for someone’s own connections with the Crown, three elements interact. The first is loyalty, a sense of identity achieved as part of something greater than oneself, a way to embrace and express association with British heritage, more mindful of its rich cultural dimensions than how the British Empire drained its colonial subjects. Respect and honour for the Crown command obedience.
The second more popular dimension is the monarchy’s entertainment value. Royal weddings, royal babies, royal affairs, royal divorces, royal gaffs – the House of Windsor feeds tabloids and television on a par with Hollywood. The British cornered the market on pageantry and dotting Canadians just can’t get enough of celebrity fawning and state occasion ogling.
The third is authentic pride in being Canadian. This value promotes liberation from foreign trappings.
