Kinsman: Should Canada cut ties with the monarchy and become a republic?

By: /
11 June, 2012
By: Jeremy Kinsman
Former ambassador to the European Union and high commissioner to Britain

No and yes. Canada will not “cut ties” with the reign of Elizabeth II. The question will be whether the Canadian Parliament renews our status as a “realm” with her acutely British son, or grand-son. For Canadians the existential issue is less one of pro or con hereditary monarchy: it is whether Canada’s “monarch” should be from another country. Obviously, there is no question of creating a home-grown monarchy, so a Republic is the inevitable alternative outcome. As a former High Commissioner in London, I have heard as much as I can stomach of the theory of how “our” Monarchy is “Canadian;” it just isn’t so, folks. It’s British through and through, and as we saw this last week, rather joyously and successfully so. But Canada has to get real, grow up, and move on when the time comes. I am absolutely sure it will.

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour … 

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

Our mission is to build a conversation that involves everyone — not just politicians, academics and policy makers. We need your help to do so. Your support helps us find stories and pay writers to tell them. It helps us grow that conversation. It helps us encourage more Canadians to play an active role in shaping our country’s place in the world.

Become a Supporter