The Queen

Canada: Land of the Queen?

We are celebrating the 22^nd royal tour in Canada of our head of state Elizabeth II, The Queen of Canada. The title was given to her in 1953, making her the first sovereign to become Queen of Canada in our history. At 58 years old Elizabeth II is the sovereign of 52 countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (not a King) who accompanied her in this last journey to Canada.

Since her arrival the 28^th June the Queen has been running across Canada like a 40 year old woman meeting with Canadians from all ages and status.

From Halifax to Ottawa, then Winnipeg after which came a few days in Southern Ontario to finally land in Waterloo for an official dinner with our Prime Minister Stephen Harper. One thing is for sure, no matter how much scandal there was in the royal family after Princess Diana’s death, Elizabeth II charms continues to warm the Canadian hearts.

For the ones that have never seen a picture of her majesty open the wallet and look closely at a twenty dollar bill. There you go!

As some of you may know the Queen embodies the Canadian nation but doesn’t rule it. Canada is a democratic monarchy, meaning that Canadian citizens rule the country through a democratic system. Let’s explain how Canada government works and what the Queens role is in it in just a few sentences.

As any democracy Canada has the executive, legislative and judicial branches in place. In this case we are more interested in the legislative branch since is the one that approves our laws and budgets. Canada has a parliamentary legislative structure. The parliament has three divisions, the Senate, the House of Commons and the Sovereign (Queen or King of Canada).

The House of Commons is represented by the 308 ministers of parliament (one per electoral district) that once every 4 years are elected by the Canadian citizens using the right to vote. Is in every Canadian citizen the right to vote for his Minister of Parliament to be represented in the government. The political party leader that has the most seats in the House of Commons becomes the Prime Minister and builds the Cabinet from which will be ruling the country.

The Queen has not permanent residence in Canada so the Governor General acts in her representation. The Governor General is usually appointed every 5 years by the Prime Minister’s advice to the Queen. The same way the Lieutenant General represents the Queen in each of the ten provinces. In this case they are appointed by the Governor General by advice of the Prime Minister also for a period of 5 years.

The Senators are appointed by advice of the Prime Minister and serve until age of 75.

Having clarified the different parts in the Parliament, let’s focus on which is the Queen’s, or better said the Governor General’s role in the creation and approval of laws. For example, for a bill to become a law needs to go through both the House of Commons and the Senate, once approved the bill receives the royal assent by Governor General in the name of the Queen and becomes a law. So as you can see the role of the Sovereign in the Parliament is a non-partisan as guardian of the constitutional freedom, allegiance and citizenship for all Canadians. All the laws are enforced in the name of the Queen. The Governor General and the Prime Minister speak and rule in name of the Queen. It seems more a formality than an actual sovereign.

The Queen nowadays is the symbol of what being Canadians means. She is the embodiment of Canadian philosophy and values.

Legislators, ministers, senators, policemen, state personal and immigrants give the oath of allegiance to the Queen which binds them to loyalty and constitution, both values embodied in the sovereign figure. The Queen has also some responsibilities with the armed forces as Colonel-in-Chief and in some rare cases the Royal Prerogative with which the Queen can use a number of rights in the Parliament.

Many of you might be asking yourself who might be the new Queen or King of Canada when Elizabeth II is gone. Well in Canada’s case the future sovereign should be the natural descendant of Sophia, Electress of Hanover. With a few restrictions; can’t be Roman Catholic nor married to one and has to be with the Church of England. Thanks to the Statute of Westminster these requirements are under discrepancy of the Canadian Parliament since many of the restrictions had legal implications. So who would be our next King? The answer is simple, Prince Charles of Wales, the primogenitor of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. When that day comes will be Charles the one showing up in the twenty dollar bill with a crown and known as sovereign of Canada. It will be up to the parliament to decide if Charles will be honored with the title of King of Canada since as I said before it depends only on our government to decide.

Reaching to conclusions we Canadians need to know a few things about our government structure. We hold a constitutional monarchy in which the head of state is the Queen Elizabeth II or the future legitimate heir of the British Throne and the head of government embodied by the Prime Minister, in this case Stephen Harper, elected every 4 years by the Canadian Citizens with the ministries of Parliament who actually rule the country in the Queens name.

Food for thought: In 2008 an Ipsos-Reid poll showed that the a 42% of the group surveyed thought the Prime Minister was the head of the state, while a 32% said it was the Governor General leaving only a 24% to the Queen Elisabeth II.