The Queen and Prince Philip arrive by carriage for the second day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meeting at Ascot, near Windsor, England.ALASTAIR GRANT
This morning's canned contretemps pitting the Prime Minister against the GG as to as to who or what constitutes Canada's head of state sent me scurrying to reread Walter Bagehot's brilliant 19th century essay advocating constitutional monarchy - specifically British constitutional monarchy - over the republican model.
Bagehot had a particular genius for putting his thesis squarely, succinctly and in plain language. To wit:
"To state the matter shortly, royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding… The nation is divided into parties, but the crown is of no party. Its apparent separation from business is that which removes it both from enmities and from desecration, which preserves its mystery, which enables it to combine the affection of conflicting parties--to be a visible symbol of unity to those still so imperfectly educated as to need a symbol."
And therein resides Stephen Harper's unassailable advantage in advocating for The Queen's eminence over and above the Governor General's. To the extent that Canadians bother to think about this stuff, Rideau Hall runs a sorry second in the national imagination to Buckingham Palace.
How else to explain our history of turning out in droves to see Betty Windsor when she comes to call. The GG is at best ersatz and by-association - what the great Jack Farr once referred to as "finger lake" royalty. Betty's the real deal. To the extent that Harper portrays himself (and is seen to be) defending Betty's honour against back-door republicanism, it's a win. To the extent that he's seen doing that against a Liberal-appointed usurper, it's a win-win.