Prince Charles and Camilla in Canada, May 20-23, 2012

[Miss Waynfleet]

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews...ens-jubilee-trust-120430/

Love the reaction of the first woman about the costs: "Are you kidding me?"

C&C are in November I think in Australia, NZ and other islands.

[just a serf]

I wish the British media would broadcast balanced news like that more often

[Molina]

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews...ens-jubilee-trust-120430/

Love the reaction of the first woman about the costs: "Are you kidding me?"

C&C are in November I think in Australia, NZ and other islands.

And they're here for only 3 days?? That's just insane!  And I wouldn't go see these two if they showed up on my doorstep! Ugh.

[getafix]

Have we of the forced UnCommonwealth  have suffered ENOUGH 

Can't they skype us and stay home???

G

[Miss Waynfleet]

Hey, guess who is in Canada?

[enelya]

Hey, guess who is in Canada?

Aw how nice Charles brought Rupert Everett to Canada! 

They're also supposed to be coming to Toronto as well.

[Molly2101]

Do the Canadians like any members of the Royal Family?

[Miss Waynfleet]

Good question 

http://www.daylife.com/se...ce+charles+may+20%2C+2012

[tcalvar]

Do the Canadians like any members of the Royal Family?

The Queen is very highly regarded here and Prince William and Waity are pretty popular too if polls are to be trusted.  Prince Charles and Camilla are not popular in Canada at all.  In fact, I think out of all the major countries of which the Queen is head of state (UK, Canada, Australia and NZ), Canadians have the most hostility towards Charles. 

Here's the thing about the Monarchy in Canada we've got a small very vocal group of monarchist, a similarly small group and slightly less vocal group of republicans and then we've got a huge whack of the country who are indifferent to the whole thing and don't care one way or the other.  Polls have shown mixed support for both retaining and abolishing it.  About 30% in favour of maintaining the monarchy, 30% wanting to abolish it and about 40% who don't care either way.  Historically people who say they don't care generally end up voting for the status quo. 

The problem is even if Canadians wanted to end the monarchy here, it would take a HUGE amount of constitutional tampering to rid Canada of the monarchy.  Unlike the UK, or even Australia, where a simple vote in Parliament is enough to abolish the monarchy, Canada would have to do a full blown constitutional amendment that would require the unanimous consent of all the provincial legislatures, the federal House of Commons and the Senate (and I believe each legislature would have to pass a bill abolishing the monarchy with at least 70% of MPs in favour)....this will never happen in Canada.  The provinces and the federal government cannot agree on anything. 

The present Federal Government is extremely pro-monarchy, and has been very active in attempting to draw the monarchy back into mainstream Canada after decades of Canada really being a 'Crowned Republic'. 

It remains to be seen what happens after the Queen passes and (assuming he's still alive) Charles takes over.  Given the amount of indifference and the fact that Canadians really only like to rock the boat when it comes to things like taxes, health care or education...I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the monarchy is still around in 20 years. 

[Barrie]

Charles and Camilla came a few years ago, no one cared.

[PrincessMLA]

Most people love the queen. Even if not monarchists, she is an amazing woman and great to come out and see. 

Wee Willy and Waity are like 'reality show' celebrities, enjoying their 15 minutes. We come out to see the show, not for the royal aspect. 

Charles and Camilla are as interesting as pea soup.  People remember Diana too well here.  And Charles is thought a joke by many 

To be honest, if WA and Maxima came for a visit at the same time, I think more people would go see the Dutch. Beatrix and her sisters are remembered a great deal, do to living here in WWII. They'd also be more interesting, as we in Canada don't hear about them all the time, and are sick of all of the sordid stories of Chuck and Cowmilla.

[luvcharles]

The problem is even if Canadians wanted to end the monarchy here, it would take a HUGE amount of constitutional tampering to rid Canada of the monarchy.  Unlike the UK, or even Australia, where a simple vote in Parliament is enough to abolish the monarchy, 

Small correction

In Australia it will take a referendum of the entire Australian population requiring a 50%+1 of the vote - a simple majority AND a majority of the states.  In our history, since 1901, only 8 constutional referenda have been approved.

If all it would take was a vote in Parliament we would have become a republic years ago - when the Australian Labor Party controlled both houses of parliament.

In 1999, when we did vote on becoming a republic the vote was 45% voting Yes and 55% voting No with only one state voting Yes (Victoria).

[sevenseas]

I really hope Charles is okay.  His hands and ankles are severely swollen.

[BWpunisher]

They were in Toronto today. It's been on CP24 ALLLLLLL day. They've been looping the arrival and their events the entire time. Maybe I should have went to see them seeing as how they decided to grace Toronto with their presence  Nah.

[TLLK]

Thank you to our Canadian dishers for your thoughts on the BRF. I hadn't realized how complicated it would be for Canada or any other Commonwealth monarchy to end their relationship to the Crown.