I have, for a while now, been 
critical of Prime Minister 
Justin Trudeau's handling of 
the monarchy. Perhaps,
surprisingly, he has done
several positive things for the
monarchy in a very short 
amount of time and it is worth 
examining what the effects of 
his actions will be. 

Trudeau faced a fair amount of 
criticism, even from within his own
caucus, for failing to issue a medal to
mark the late Queen's jubilee. While
no coronation medal was issued, a
medallion was. Now, I hate to be the
one to nit pick but medallions are
generally sold while medals are
given to recognize some worthy
person. Given the recent times we've
been through there are a large
number of Canadians who ought to be honoured. Trudeau's
​reluctance to issue a medal on both occasions is curious.  

The government confirmed that the King's portrait will be
on the Canadian $20 bill as well as all coins issued. The coins
were never really in doubt but there were suggestions around
not having the King on the $20 bill. Trudeau has put that
​speculation to rest.

While the events were described as low-key, Trudeau's
government didn't have to hold them at all so the fact that he
did shows some desire to acknowledge the monarchy.

Trudeau's government has created a new Canadian crown.
It is a heraldic design only and shares elements with the
Tudor Crown, Saint Edward's Crown, and (probably
unintentionally) the Loyalist Coronet.

Now, some dislike this design. There are criticisms about how
the design was decided on (without consultation), removal of
religious symbols (crosses and fleur-de-lis), and the addition
​of a snowflake to the top of the crown. Even the direction of
the ermine arrows was critiqued (I am not going to discuss
ermine arrows!). 

Okay, first of all, I understand why there was no consultation
with Parliament. There may still be people old enough to
remember the Canadian Flag Debate and all the acrimony 
that caused. The monarchy is meant to be a unifying symbol,
intentionally making it a source of division would be perverse.

Second, as a Christian myself, yes, I would prefer to have my
beliefs represented. However, the Canadian Monarchy, unlike
the British Monarchy, has no connection to an established
church (which is also reflected in a recent change to the
King's Canadian titles). It is weird then for such a connection
to be present in the crown. Given the monarchy's association
with a single faith has been a point of attack for republicans
this may blunt that particular charge.

The new design plays up the theme of Canadians being tied to
the land they live on with the crown's representations of
rivers, mountains, maple trees and snow. Also, that snowflake
is a bestagon. 

This does mean that future Leadership Surveys will need
to change out the crown used but thats a me problem.

The new passport design was
released to mixed reviews. Some
praised the artwork while others
criticized the lack of historical
references. But despite this the
passport retains the coat of arms
and its royal symbolism (even if 
the cover is a bit awkward). As a 
side note the coat of arms still uses
Saint Edward's Crown which may
indicate a lack of coordination between the government
departments. Most likely, differing time tables on when things
needed to be done prevented the new crown from being
​included.

Recent terrible polling for the monarchy has led other leaders
in the Commonwealth musing about future republics. To his
credit, Trudeau wasn't one of them. In the past I did critique
his defence of the monarchy. His comments after the King's
coronation were quite a bit better and came at a time when
they were needed. Likewise, his comment before the funeral
of Queen Elizabeth II about appreciating the monarchy's
'steadiness' shows a degree of growth, if not in his thoughts
regarding the monarchy, at least in how he presents those
​thoughts.

Some of the actions above have attracted criticism but that is
unavoidable in the current political climate. Overall, I think
Trudeau has set the monarchy up well for the future. I still
have grievances with how Trudeau handles the monarchy
file (the free portrait program especially) but he has done a
​solid B+ job recently. 

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

On February 17th the Monarchist League of Canada finally 
received confirmation by the government that no medal 
would be produced to mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. 
Now, given the number of people who have went above and 
beyond during the pandemic (and ought to be honoured in 
some way) this is not a great decision. But as the article title 
might suggest this isn't the first time Justin Trudeau has 
failed to take his role as prime minister of Her Majesty's 
​Government seriously.

The Queen's portrait is removed from the lobby of the Foreign
Affairs building. Back then I was willing to give the newly
elected Liberal government the benefit of the doubt.

During a royal tour by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
the government approved a new natural gas terminal. This
was done while the royals were visiting the very people the
terminal would effect. The optics were not great and a more
cynical person might suggest the prime minister was trying to
hide behind the royal couple.

Justin Trudeau opted to ignore the vetting committee for vice-
regal appointments when recommending the appointment of
Julie Payette to the position of governor general. Now, the act
of a prime minister keeping their own counsel regarding
appointments is not new. However, they do have a serious
responsibility to make sure the candidate is properly vetted.
Reporters quickly dug up some pretty easily found reports
that should have raised red flags. As governor general
Julie Payette would end up being the worst holder of the 
​office in at least my lifetime, if not longer.

The government opted to end a successful program that
supplied free portraits of the Queen to any Canadian who
requested one. A similar program for the Charter was not
​affected.

How are these events to be interpreted? There are simply too
many slip-ups on a single issue for it to be random chance. 
This leaves open a couple possibilities:

1. Justin Trudeau's government is incompetent. Justin
Trudeau has gotten into a lot of trouble over its time in office.
We are not talking about Machiavellian dirty tricks but rather
a string of unforced errors, back-peddling, and seemingly a
lack of clear leadership. Up until this year I would have
placed myself in this column.

2. Justin Trudeau's government is actively working to
undermine the monarchy. The last couple of acts by this
government that I listed don't fall into the category of a
government bumbling. To end the portrait program and not
the Charter program is intentional and the Jubilee Medal
decision even more so. Despite what Justin Trudeau has
said in the past I can't see him as a friend of the monarchy any
longer.

If it really is the second option we may be seeing the return
of republicanism by stealth. No grand declaration of war
against our institutions but instead a slow chipping away at
the foundation of Canadian governance.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

The tenure of current governor general 
Julie Payette could be described as a wee 
bit turbulent. Early missteps were largely 
forgiven as the actions of someone new to 
the role. But as the one year anniversary 
of Her Excellency's appointment rolled 
around there were new questions. Her 
presence at various events was being 
scaled back.

One of the events she did not wish to attend was a bill signing.
This is a problem as it doesn't become law otherwise. But for a
while things were quiet and I hoped Her Excellency was
finally settling in to her role as the governor general. Then
earlier this year allegations of verbal abuse and the creation
of a hostile work environment were made against the
governor general and her secretary. This resulted in the Privy
Council Office launching an investigation into these claims.

It is unlikely comparisons to Her Excellency's predecessor 
could be avoided given his unimpeachable tenure in the
office. So how did things go so wrong? The tory partisans will
​likely point out that Julie Payette was recommended for this
appointment by Justin Trudeau while David Johnston was
recommended by Stephen Harper. Except this isn't fully true.

Stephen Harper made many poor appointments as prime
minister (mostly to the Senate). But when it came time to
appoint a governor general and later the lieutenant governors
he opted to create a committee of constitutional experts. He
had no input on their selection and recommended one of the
five who the committee recommended to him. David
Johnston came out of this process as did several lieutenant
governors who, as of yet, have not become famous for the
wrong reasons.

Notably, Justin Trudeau set up a committee to recommend
Senate appointments to him and this system has worked fine.
But the committee on vice-regal appointments was not kept.
There are a couple possible reasons for this. Perhaps he
already had Julie Payette in mind for the job. Or perhaps he
wanted the reflected glow of a star appointment to shine upon him. If so, his current troubles are karmic in nature. It has
become clear that the vetting process is where the problem
lies. Failure to find previous assault charges? Check. Failure
to find involvement in a fatal crash? Check. Failure to do a
basic background check with her former employers? Check.

Now lets be clear: Her Excellency is very accomplished and as
such gets a lot of attention from employers looking to hire the
best and brightest. But it is becoming clear she was thrust into
a role that does not fit her personality. As someone who has
been in that situation I can say for a fact that it is stressful.
And stress without any sort of outlet can manifest as the sorts
of behaviors she is accused of.

This leaves us with an important question: would a special
committee designed to vet vice-regal candidates beforehand
have been able to better warn the prime minister about what
he was getting into? If so, the greatest legacy Trudeau could
leave behind would, ironically, be to restore part of the legacy
of his predecessor and work to restore the Advisory
Committee on Vice-regal Appointments. Everyone will
be better off.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Canada is well into a federal election 
and I wanted to take this chance to 
look back at what the government has 
done Vis-à-vis the monarchy. I will 
state right off the bat that this blog 
takes no stance on who anyone should 
vote for. This article is provided for 
educational purposes to assist with 
making an informed vote on election 
day. With that disclaimer out of the 
way lets have a look back at what the 
Trudeau government has done for/to 
the Canadian Monarchy.

Things got off on an uneven start in 2015. In November 
the Queen's portrait was taken down from the lobby of the
Foreign Affairs building. This was not the only change as the
office of Canadian Secretary to the Queen was folded into the
Department of Canadian Heritage and has been left vacant.

Later that month Justin Trudeau had his first meeting with
the Queen. The Queen actually knew him as a child since he
is the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

In 2016 a Royal Tour was announced which focused on the
Canadian west coast. While the tour was a great success,
there was one noticeable misstep by the government. The
Pacific Northwest LNG project received government approval
less than 48 hours after Prince William and Kate had visited
the area and while they were still in the country. The
appearance that the government seemed to be hiding behind
the royal couple has always struck me as wrong. While
arriving at a First Nations community it was noted that
several paddlers were wearing 'NO LNG' T-shirts. By making
the announcement when it did the government put the royal
couple in the middle of a political dispute. 

2017 saw the Invictus Games hosted by Canada. The games
are an initiative of Prince Harry to "demonstrate the power of
sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation, and
demonstrate life beyond disability". Trudeau was able to use
​some of his 'star power' to increase the visibility of the event.

That year also saw the appointment of Julie Payette as the
next Governor General of Canada. This appoint was different
than that of the last governor general appointment (and a few
lieutenant governors) as the government opted not to
make use of an advisory committee set up by the previous
Harper government for selecting potential appointees. This
decision likely meant that several red flags were missed and
contributed to a rough first year for the governor general (the
person and the office). The committee has not been made use
of for provincial appointments either. This despite a similar
committee having been set up for Senate appointments.

In June of 2018, Trudeau was speaking at a youth forum in
Toronto when he was asked about the monarchy. While
he defended the institution many felt his arguments could
have been better.

2019 saw the end of the free royal portrait program. The
stated reason was escalating costs and environmental
concerns. The program had grown in popularity since its start
in the early 2000's. However, the end of the program is
thought to be a potential hurdle to anyone wanting to put up
portrait-sized prints.

I believe this to be a thorough overview of the actions and
statements by the government over the last four years which
pertain to the monarchy.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

On Wednesday Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau attended a
youth forum in Toronto where
he was asked about the value of
Canada being a monarchy. His
​answer raises some questions.

The recording of the youth forum is available on CPAC with
the relevant section starting at the one hour mark: "What are
your thoughts on monarchy? And also, do you see us freeing
ourselves from paying the English Royal Family taxes in the
future?" Now, this is pedantic but since it comes up so much
I will again note that there is no 'English Royal Family' as
there is no government of England for there to be a royal
family of. It would be more correct to say the 'British Royal
Family', or even the 'Jamaican Royal Family', but in the
Canadian context it is most correct to say the 'Canadian Royal
Family' or simply the 'Royal Family' (since I think most
people will get what you mean). If I were a bit more cynical I
would assume the question is framed this way to deny the
Royal Family's legitimacy as a Canadian institution or to
imply it only matters to one of Canada's ethnic groups. But I
digress.

Trudeau's answer goes off the rails immediately, however.
"Canadians pay minimal amounts to the British Monarchy.
When the Queen is here she becomes the Queen of Canada
and there are costs associated with that." As I was about to
facepalm at the reference to paying taxes to the British
Monarchy Trudeau goes a step further and states that the
Queen somehow only becomes Queen of Canada when she is
here. That is false and Trudeau ought to know it is false. But
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt since its the
last question of an hour-long Q&A session. He does point out
that he doesn't think eliminating the monarchy is an effective
cost saving measure. Ok, that answer was a little rough
around the edges but he might do better as he goes on.

"The question needs to be; do we need to eliminate the
monarchy from Canada in order to succeed more as a
country? Is the monarchy holding us back in things we
would like to do but are unable to do and succeed as a
country?" He then answers that he is a pragmatic in that he
doesn't see what benefits having a Canadian-born head of
state would bring. He then goes into the more standard
argument that having a head of state that does not involve
themselves politically is a good thing. He touches on how the monarchy's setup today is a tradition going back 150 years
and if we started up a new country today called Canada we
might choose to not have a head of state that lives in a
different country (interestingly he doesn't say he believes we
wouldn't choose to have a monarchy again).

"It isn't harming us or preventing our success." If you want to
listen to the full answer Justin Trudeau gave the link is at the
top of the article. Lets be clear, his answer was an argument
for Canada remaining a monarchy and I will give him credit
for that. But as the Monarchist League of Canada has
pointed out Trudeau seemed to rely more on negative
arguments for the monarchy's defence (ie. arguing against
change rather than arguing for monarchy in its own right).

This is unfortunate as there are a lot of positive arguments for
monarchy. People have made those arguments. Prominent Canadians have made those arguments throughout our
history. It shouldn't be too much to expect our prime minister
to be able to make a positive case for not only keeping our
​monarchy but celebrating it.

Perhaps more worrying is his final statements that future
leaders might decide to ending the monarchy is important. If
he made that statement at any other event I wouldn't raise an
eyebrow. But this was a youth forum which presumably has
those future leaders Trudeau was referring to. Was this
statement added in to encourage them to pursue this? I don't
know but the Prime Minister's answers should raise concern. 

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour   

The Monarchist League of Canada has published its Spring
2016 issue of Canadian Monarchist News. Link

This issue leads off with a
handful of articles on Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau. This
is understandable given the
recent change in government
and the fact that Mr. Trudeau's
view of, & relationship with,
the monarchy is not all that
well publicized. These articles
do a lot to illuminate Her
Majesty's newest Prime
Minister. There is also a nice
tribute to former Prime
Minister Stephen Harper for
everything he has done for
​Canada's monarchy. 

The article by constitutionalist Philippe Lagassé interpreting
the Ontario Court of Appeal's ruling on the Citizenship Oath
​helped clear up the details of a slightly muddled legal ruling.

It was also nice to see the Young Monarchists are well
represented. In fact, all ages are well-represented. The old
republican lie that monarchists are nostalgic octogenarians
has never been more dead.

While many features from previous issues have returned I
do note the absence of the Crowns & Maces. This feature
which noted positive actions towards the Canadian Crown
and called out negative ones was one of my favorites.
Perhaps there were too few negative actions to make a good
​article? One can only hope!  

Back issues of Canadian Monarchist News can be found on
the League website. Link

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Yesterday the Prime Minister had his first audience with Her
Majesty. During the public photo-op prior to Justin Trudeau's
private audience with the Queen the two exchanged pleasantries and remarked on their previous meeting when
​Justin Trudeau was but a child. Afterwards the Queen and her
​Prime Minister had a private discussion.

These private discussions are immensely important to our
system of government. A Prime Minister lives in a world 
where allies can be just as dangerous as enemies. A world
where he is surrounded by either supportive or critical
partisans at all times. Former British Prime Minister James
Callaghan described the meetings as being akin to a trip to
the psychiatrist. The Queen takes her role as confidant
seriously and has never divulged the private matters
discussed with her ministers. 

The Queen also serves as a non-partisan source of advice and
experience. The Queen has a wealth of knowledge about what
policies governments have tried, what obstacles they faced,
and possible solutions. Repeatedly, Prime Ministers have
marveled at the width and breadth of the Queen's knowledge
of her Canadian realm. They probably shouldn't be. Her
Majesty has always taken a keen interest in the triumphs and
tragedies of her subjects. She has toured every province to an
extent no federal politician is likely to do. She knows her
country well. The Prime Minister would be wise to request,
and heed, Her Majesty's advice.

​Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Justin Trudeau was sworn in as Canada's 23rd Prime Minister
last Wednesday. The process of being sworn in as a Prime
Minister of Canada involves three separate oaths. The first
was the Oath of Allegiance:

The Oath of Allegiance is a requirement for assuming many
high offices in Canada as well as forming part of the Oath of
Citizenship sworn by those who wish to join the Canadian
family. The Oath of Allegiance is often taken along with other
specific oaths (as it is here). The second oath Justin Trudeau
took on Wednesday was the Oath of the Members of the
Privy Council:

Notice that while both oaths require sworn loyalty to the
sovereign the context is different. The first is a promise to be a
loyal Canadian, to do no harm to her Majesty (or her heirs),
and to present yourself as a friend to Canada. The second oath
is a promise (while also upholding loyalty) to do one's duty for
Canada. To finish everything off Justin Trudeau also took the
Oath of Office:

This is the only oath that does not require swearing some sort
of loyalty to the sovereign. This makes a bit more sense when
you consider that the office of Prime Minister is still merely primus inter pares, first among equals. You can't become
Prime Minister (or cabinet minister) without first being a
member of the Privy Council. It is this large group of Her
Majesty's advisers that Justin Trudeau became 'first among'.

There has been a tendency to concentrate power into the Office of the Prime Minister over the years. This slow-motion presidentialization of the office is one thing that the new
Prime Minister has promised to fix. It remains to be seen as
to whether he will follow through and become once again
first among Her Majesty's servants or continue to think of
themselves as over mighty presidential wannabes.  

Loyally Yours,
​A Kisaragi Colour