Can Will and Kate reverse our declining attachment to the monarchy?

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What to think about the royals?

No surprise, there's been fresh polling data and comment about how Canadians feel about the Royal Family.  Over the years I've been in the polling business (since 1983), I've studied feelings about the monarchy at several junctures.  Here's what I've observed.

Canadians are taught, at an early age, that our royals play virtually no active role in our governance.  We also learn that there are few places in the world where hereditary titles have anything to do with modern government.  It would be easy to conclude that we no longer "need" a royal family.  But, despite being a pragmatic lot, many Canadians still don't want to change that relationship.  Why is that?

First, while we disdain excessive symbolism and pomposity, on some deep level, we value symbols and can be quite moved by ceremony.  Even though we forget much of our collective history, or maybe because we worry that we are losing touch with that past, the right kind of reminders of our heritage are treasured.

With the Royal Family, our relationship is complex and dynamic, not simple or static.   While nominally, the Queen governs us, in reality the relationship is a tacit social license.  The terms are unwritten, but hardly obscure.  When the Royal Family acts in a fashion consistent with our values and expectations, our support for the institution firms, and the opposite is true as well.

Polls show that attachment to the monarchy has declined over time, but this isn't because we've recently grown doubtful about the practical utility of a royal family.  Nor do these results imply a strong desire to be rid of the symbol; they are more about dismay at how the symbol was being treated by some of its custodians.  There's nothing unique in this, we've turned away from many institutions that have been important symbolically in the past, out of frustration with how they were behaving or being run.

What's interesting in watching William and Kate then, is whether they offer a potential reversal of these trends, a strengthening of support for the symbol.  Let's consider how they conform to what might be Canadians' basic wish list for Royal comportment:

- Grace and good manners. Canadians are caricatured around the world for being almost excessively polite, but every good caricature starts with an accurate observation.  We want those who speak on our behalf and represent our institutions to act with grace, to set an example of dignity and thoughtfulness.  Prince Charles does not enjoy this reputation, but his first-born son clearly does.  So too, after some time already in the public eye, does William's bride.

-  Down to earth.  We see ourselves as having no airs, and what we love almost more than anything else, paradoxically, about Royals, is when they come across as "approachable", " down to earth".  Not exactly ordinary, which would miss the point, but certainly avoiding pretensions.  The future heirs to the Throne have revealed a refreshing humility and a desire to be grounded, including by their choice of where to live after their wedding.

-  Elegance, even opulence, but with limits.  We want the Royal family to look like a royal family, with a lot of trappings.  But we don't want to feel that they take these entitlements for granted, or are constantly pushing the envelope.  I remember doing some focus groups at the time of the 1991 visit of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, when the Royal Yacht Britannia was harboured in Toronto.  Canada was struggling with high deficits and looming cutbacks and tax increases, but the Yacht, which might have seemed a symbol of excess, didn't seem to rub people the wrong way, largely because impressions of the Princess and the Prince were in great shape.  I'd wager that the signals the Duchess of Cambridge has been sending out about cost-consciousness are noted and well received.

Whether the Duke and Duchess will, over time, reverse declining attachment to the monarchy is far from a sure thing.  But, if a major reason for declining popularity of the institution was the behaviour of some members of the Royal Family, then in theory this trend can be reversed. It's hard to imagine two young people getting off to a better start in this direction than William and Kate have been doing.