Governor-General Michaëlle Jean and the Prince of Wales on Nov. 11.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Prince Charles' recent tour of Canada led much of the media to proclaim Canada's irrefutable destiny as a republic and publish polls saying that Canadians are ambivalent about the monarchy, Michael Valpy writes in his weeeked essay.
While those sentiments are often heard whenever the Queen and Prince Charles arrive here, Mr. Valpy argues that point of view overlooks two things.
"First, the Canadian monarchy doesn't simply mean the Queen is head of state with Charles waiting in the wings. It means that this is the way the country is governed; it's the nuts and bolts of how the country works. Second, changing that status would be political and legal agony because the Crown has metastasized throughout the Constitution," Mr. Valpy writes.
"The difficulty with the monarchy is that the two people who personify it - only the Queen and Charles constitutionally have relevance to Canada, the Queen as the legal personality of the state and the Prince as heir apparent - are at best transnational and at worst British.
"But the institution itself is not a colonial hangover. It is thoroughly Canadian."
Mr. Valpy outlines the role the Crown has played in Canadian history, saying it was essential to the development of the constitutional theory of responsible government in Canada in the 1840s and 1850s; central to the definition of Canadian federalism in 1892; central to Canadian nationhood in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster; and the final instrument of independence in 1947 when the sovereign transferred to the Governor-General all but a few minor constitutional duties as head of state.
"In sum, turning Canada into a republic would require both an evisceration of history and a complete constitutional enema. With everyone having to keep in mind why they were going to the trouble," Mr. Valpy writes.
In Saturday's editorial The Globe presentss a vision to prepare for the inevitable transition in monarchs and calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to grasp a historic opportunity to further modernize the Canadian Crown.
On Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET, return to this page for a live discussion with Mr. Valpy and John Geiger, the chair of The Globe and Mail's editorial board, on the role the Crown will play in Canada's future.
If you would like to leave a question for Mr. Valpy and Mr. Geiger in advance, please use the Comments area on this page.
Mr. Valpy is a senior writer for The Globe and Mail. He began his journalistic career on The Vancouver Sun where he later served as associate editor and national political columnist. For The Globe and Mail, he has been a member of the editorial board, Ottawa political columnist, Africa correspondent, deputy managing editor and columnist on social and political issues.
He has produced public affairs documentaries for CBC Radio, written for Maclean's, Elm Street, Policy Options and Time (Canada) magazines, won three national newspaper awards, co-authored two books on Canada's constitution -- The National Deal (1982) and To Match A Dream (1998) -- and one on Canada's emerging generation of adults New Canada (2003). Trent University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997.
Mr. Geiger is the editorial board editor of The Globe and Mail, and received a National Newspaper Award citation of merit for editorial writing in 2008. Before that he was editorials editor, review editor and deputy national editor at National Post. He is the bestselling author of The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible, and four other books of non-fiction, including the international bestseller Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition, which describes the results of the Franklin Forensic Project. He also authored, with Dr Peter Suedfeld, the scholarly study, 'The Sensed Presence as a Coping Resource in Extreme Environments.' His work has been translated into ten languages.
He has lectured widely, including presenting talks at the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine - University of London; School of Analytic Studies and Information Technology - York University; the Royal Ontario Museum; the Vancouver Maritime Museum; the Explorers Club, New York; and the National Library. He is a presenter at the 2009 ideaCity conference. His documentary film appearances include Channel 4 (UK), and PBS NOVA (US) in "Arctic Passage", BBC4 in "Wilderness Explored: Arctic", The Discovery Channel (US) in "Islands of Mystery: Dead Silence", and on Bravo! (Canada) in "FLicKeR."
Geiger was born in Ithaca, New York, and studied history at the University of Alberta. He spent three field seasons in the Arctic as historical investigator for the Knight Archeological Project, a scientific investigation of the 1719 James Knight Expedition disaster. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, as well as being Vice President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and a Fellow of the Explorer's Club.
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