The Queen's annual Christmas message has been released.
It covered several topics but a big one was the need for mutual
respect between people and the corrosive effect tribalism can have. It talked about the good the Commonwealth Games do
in bringing diverse peoples together to emphasize shared
values. It even included a small joke about her age. What it
did not talk about was poverty or any topics close to poverty.

But some easily distracted people couldn't take their eyes off
the S & P Erard Grand Piano. This is perhaps understandable
​because it is beautiful:

But this also being the age of social media someone had to be
the voice of complaint. Her Majesty was called 'out of 
touch' and 'a rich person scolding poor people'. Never mind
that the piano dates from 1856 and is literally older than
Canada is. Never mind that the Queen and the rest of the
Royal Family continue to give their time and money to many
charitable causes (including reducing poverty). And certainly
never mind that the Queen was addressing probably the most
troubling trend of recent history. The social media mob hath
spoken. And as is the case with these things someone on
social media has to take things a step further and move from
disagreement to outright falsehood:

And so a timely reminder about faith, hope and love (for your
fellow man) was derailed because people can't get over a big
piano. Sometimes I wonder about humanity's capacity to
actually attempt what Her Majesty, in her own small way, is
advocating. Then again, the other theme the Queen touched
on was that despite humanity's great propensity for good it
also has the capacity for evil. 

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

The recent case of a monarchist group on Facebook being
the victim of hacking has been solved. In a statement posted
to their page by the admins they state that three members have been removed from the group. Their names are Ms.
Stazija Zikanovic (former admin), Mr. Nićifor Damjanović
(former admin), & Mr. Duje Jerkovic.

Ms. Stazija Zikanovic was the admin who was 'hacked' but
​lies about her current involvement in several organizations
and past threats issued by her has ruined the credibility of her
story. Ms. Zikanovic previously claimed to be a member
leader of the Kingdom of Serbia Association, part of the Privy
Council of the Serbian Royal Family and Councilwoman of the
city of Belgrade.

Suspicion about the hacking claim led the admins to seek the assistance of Mr. Mario Majstorović, who is President of the
Kingdom of Serbia Association and member of the Privy
Council of the Serbian Royal House. He confirmed that she
had no association with either group.

Mr. Nićifor Damjanović and Mr. Duje Jerkovic were removed
for vouching for Ms. Stazija Zikanovic, having their positions
safeguarded by her threats, and making threats of their own.
It is now believed that Ms. Stazija Zikanovic carried out the
membership purge of her own accord.

The investigation has been concluded and the group is in the
process of repairing the damage caused by this incident. The
group has so far regained 100 of the members that were lost
in the purge late last week.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

On December 13th the Monarchists
Facebook page was the victim of
vandalism after an Admin's account
was compromised. The attack lasted
​from 6AM EST until 8AM EST.

During that time group members along with their posts were
deleted at a rate of 10 members per minute. The culprit did
stop to take a breather between 6:30 and 6:45 which limited
the damage slightly. Before the attack the group stood at
5,075 members and after the attack membership had been
reduced to around 4,500. The attacks ceased when
another admin noticed the alarming behavior of the hacked
admin and started countermanding the culprit's actions. 

Group admin Aria David believes he has unblocked everyone effected but notes that "We can unblock people, but they must
actually reapply in order for us to restore them. Admins and
mods only have the power to re-add people to the group with
whom we are personally friends with. And even that I have
found is difficult because due to Facebook updating certain
features. It seems the block list has not easily accessible
anymore. Thus I have to through the log and manually undo
the action of that member being blocked in order for them to
regain entry. It's something that I hope Facebook will resolve
very soon, because it couldn't have come at a worse time." 

When asked about what could have motivated the attack Mr.
David noted that the group has grown substantially over the
last few years and many consider it now the premier English-
speaking monarchist group on Facebook. Mr. David also
noted that "I have steered this group and the movement in
the direction of stripping away all of the misperceptions
about monarchy that drive people away from it. I and my
colleagues have eliminated bigotries and intolerances that
have held the movement in the past. We have become the
central meeting point for co-patriots across the world who
are able to now communicate and effect change in countries
like Romania, Iran and even Brazil and Russia."

This is the first such attack perpetrated against the group and
added security measures are currently being considered.
However, the announcement made shortly after the attack
that new admin roles would be added was planned for some
time and is unrelated to it.  

As for suspects Mr. David has confirmed that they do have
some suspected individuals and groups but nothing concrete
at the ​present time. He is at least somewhat convinced it
wasn't a virus of some kind due to how it responded to the
presence of ​another admin. Mr. David states that, "We intend
to hire either Facebook and or a third party tech team to look
into this matter...If we can determine who the culprit is, I
will press my legal rights the maximum. They virtually
raped my colleague's profile with hate messages and death
threats and they proceeded to savage my group." 

The admins are still working to restore deleted accounts at the
present time (a process that could take weeks). The group
members appear to be in good spirits and are taking this
setback in stride. As a Canadian monarchist I would offer a
few words encouragement. Back in 2015 Her Majesty quoting
John 1:5 said "The light shines in the darkness and the
darkness has not ​overcome it." Monarchists cannot be run
off so easily. This effort to scatter us has failed. The damage
will be repaired and we will continue to speak out about the
many ​failures of republicanism.

In a statement released by Mr. David he promises that "My
continued pursuit of the truth of this matter is not going to
end until I'm satisfied. I have been admin to this group for
nearly five years, and I have worked too hard to let it be
destroyed like this. So, in the words of Margaret Thatcher,
"...I do not negotiate with THUGS!" And in the spirit of
Japanese monarchy "Heaven does not forgive treachery..."
and neither do I."

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Makes me smile every time.

This video is from the Queen's 90th birthday celebration. She
does love her animals. My mother often has the same reaction
to cows, sheep, goats, etc.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

The Prince's Trust Canada (which is
the successor to The Prince's Charities
Canada with the name change occurring
in August) has undertaken several
initiatives to provide books and teaching
tools in a range of Native languages.
Announced in June the goal of that
initiative was to have five different books
for elementary school age children, distributed in
the Woodland Cree, Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Saulteaux,
Dene, Nakota, Lakota, and Dakota languages. 

The Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, His Honour the
Honourable Thomas W. Molloy, was present at the launch of
this initiative and stated that “The revival of Indigenous
culture and language is an important part of Reconciliation.
I believe that knowledge leads to understanding and
appreciation, and I also believe that Indigenous culture will
enrich our lives and make our province and our country
better.” 

Another initiative in September saw a 2017 project extended
with funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to
produce a total of eight books, audio and video in six different
languages on medical topics of concern to Indigenous
children in hospital or ill at home. Distribution will be
handled by the Manitoba Children’s Hospital Foundation

Earlier this year the Prince's Trust Canada also took a group
of Inuit to Wales to learn about language revitalization from
the Welsh experience.

The Prince's Trust Canada (and the Prince's Charities Canada
before it) do good work that rarely gets acknowledged. It
continues to uphold the spirit of the motto found on the
Prince of Wales' coat of arms; Ich Dien, "I serve".

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Recently, while doing an interview on the topic of the spending of the
former Governor General Adrienne
Clarkson, Mr. Singh stated that he
did not see the relevancy of the
monarchy and that he was a
republican. Various members of the
Monarchist League of Canada
sought clarification (and probably to
try and convince him to change his
mind). Below is the response that
they received and which the League
shared with its ​members at noon
today:

I am going to focus in on a couple small sections of this quote.
"We’ve got a democracy and we’re proud of our democracy,
and I think that’s what most Canadians think is important
and I think we should focus on that." Yes, we should. And a
study from 2008 might interest him. It came to several
interesting conclusions including that "direct election is
associated with increased voter fatigue and decreased
turnout in parliamentary elections by about seven
percentage points" and "because holding the presidency
provides parties with an electoral asset, direct and indirect
presidential elections can be equally contentious and
polarizing". Neither of which are improvements to Canadian
democracy.

​Another study earlier this year found that,"We find strong
evidence that monarchies contribute to a greater protection
of property rights and higher standards of living through
each of the three theoretical mechanisms compared to all
republics. We also find that democratic-constitutional
monarchies perform better than non-democratic and
absolute monarchies when it comes to offsetting the negative
effects of the tenure and discretion of the executive branch."
So, yes, democracy makes a country function better but
monarchy makes a democracy function better.

The second section of Mr. Singh's reply I wanted to highlight
was his invitation to "all progressives to come together, to
help make a real difference—for more people today, and for
future generations." All well and good. His stance on the
monarchy is a hindrance to that goal. Because many potential
NDP voters see Canada's monarchy has being helpful to that
laudable goal.

For instance during the NDP Leadership Race Jonathan
Banks noted "I am not myself a member of the New
Democratic Party, but often find myself more sympathetic to
many of its policies than I am to those of the Liberals when
concerning the rights and concerns of the working classes,
and the little guy, generally. However, one reason I always
find myself cringing away from being able to actually
support the NDP is certain members’ stances on the
monarchy... I know that I and many people like me would
feel infinitely more comfortable with the NDP if it took a firm
public stance in favour of the Monarchy."

Darren Brierley likewise wrote to me stating "After reviewing
Jagmeet Singh's comments against the Monarchy I became
deeply concerned. As a Federal NDP supporter since Jack
Layton, I do not have confidence in a leader who does not
understand that the Canadian Crown is completely
independent and unique from the British Crown and of it's
powerful force for national unity and Canadian identity. I
certainly don't support someone who doesn't respect or even
understand the Canadian Crown." 

​There is a slight irony that while repeated political quizzes
over many years consistently place me in the same ideological
camp as the NDP, I have never come close to voting for them.
I find his views on the monarchy highly regrettable but that's
just my view. You know...since he's open to hearing the views
of others and all that.

For a while now this blog has been
trying to join The Progressive
Bloggers, a blog aggregator for
blogs that are progressive in
nature (if that wasn't obvious from
the name). 

"But monarchy isn't progressive!" 
~progressives & conservatives yelling in unison

Since I've gotten this comment from both sides I wanted to
write an article explaining my reasoning for why this blog has
every right to be on that aggregator (it is this argument that
kept it off of it for so long).

I have written before about how monarchy can be considered
a progressive institution so I will not re-tread the arguments
here. By all means check out the link above though. But if
monarchy is a progressive ideal why do conservatives support
it?

This question touches on the central theme of this post:
Monarchy is progressive in nature but conservative in its
organization. Monarchy symbolizes many of the things that
conservatives hold dear: tradition, personal authority, moral
rectitude, and an ordered society. Now progressives don't
value all of these things as highly as conservatives so maybe it
makes sense that they often don't see the value of monarchy
as clearly.

Occasionally, they do. The last US presidential election had
even progressive publications wondering if the republic
itself was at fault. Way back in 2007 Maclean's Magazine
published an editorial looking at the then recent episode of
the King of Spain asking a belligerent Hugo Chávez, "Why
don’t you shut up?". They noted that,"As a monarch set above
politics and with the honour of his country at stake, King
Juan Carlos had both the status and occasion to put Chávez
in his place. Deflator of windbags. Perhaps there is a role for
a modern monarchy after all". Countries without a monarchy
don't have the equivalent figure to stand up to boorish leader
of the executive. A figure capable of knocking them down a
peg and getting them back to work. Even when not actively
telling a politician to can it, by occupying the most prestigious
position in society they prevent other, perhaps more volatile,
​people from doing so. Such people, incidentally, tend not to
favour social order and can't be trusted to play nice with our
traditions. The institution of monarchy is best suited for
protecting our Canadian customs and ensuring the stability
to nurture future progress.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

It has been my experience that republicans
like to tell themselves that it is "only a
matter of time" before the Canadian
Monarchy is abolished. The reasoning is
that young people just don't support the
institution. This is closely related to a
second argument about immigrants not
supporting the monarchy (a myth I have
partially dealt with before). But I'll
leave debunking that one for another day.
For now lets have a look at whether claims that the ​young
don't support the monarchy have any basis in fact.

I'll start with personal experience and work out from there. I
happen to be the admin of a monarchist Facebook page which
has a little over 1,200 likes. The combined result of all
teenagers and young adults compared to middle aged and
elderly produces a 40% to 60% split. Not exactly a 'horde' of
old folks.

Over on /r/CanadaPolitics their 60k membership survey
had many interesting results but the one that matters in this
instance is that 93% of the user base is under the age of 44.
The user base was also about 60% leftism of some sort. This
detail is important as the monarchy is one of the few subjects
that is supposedly conservative that doesn't experience large
amounts of down voting. Clearly there are monarchists who
are young. But enough of the touchy-feely assumptions. Are
there any ​hard numbers? 

Back in 2011 the Monarchist League of Canada (which is led
by a chairman in his 30s) noted that 15% of its membership
were under the age of 25. A survey carried out by Forum
Research in 2017 found that those 18 to 34 were slightly more
supportive of the monarchy than opposed. The age group 35
to 54 were between 5% and 7% more opposed. Finally, the
age group 55 to 65+ were more supportive by more than 11%.
So while support for the monarchy is present across all age
groups there is a slump in support for many around the age of
40. If I had to theorize why that is I'd have to say it has a lot
to do with the death of Princess Diana who died 21 years ago.
Those who are in the 35 to 54 age range are the ones old
enough to remember clearly what occurred and have it colour
their outlook. But I'm getting off-topic.

So why does any of this matter? Well, in the broadest sense
republicans misunderestimate their opponents. That is to say,
they underestimate monarchists because they don't
understand them. Believing that monarchists are a bunch of
old fogeys who will eventually die off is both comforting to
them and tends to favour strategies that involve waiting. But
this is only effective if your own supporters don't make up a
large portion of the elderly. Since 2011 polls have continued
to consistently show an even split in support. This is an
improvement from the 1990s and early 2000s when support
​for monarchy was in the mid-40% range and more favourable to a republic. It very well could be that the late 1990s were the
republicans' best chance and they missed it.

That is not to say that the increased visibility of the younger
members of the Royal Family haven't helped. Being able to
identify with a member of the Royal Family of a similar age
is an important factor in supporting it (although every age
group does agree that the Queen is awesome).

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour