It would appear that the Canadian Heraldic Authority has 
​developed a bit of a backlog due to high demand. While 
certainly an annoyance for anyone seeking a grant of arms, it 
is great to see more people taking advantage of one of the 
​more unique gifts the Crown bestows. And, indeed, it is good 
to see so many people being deemed worthy of receiving a 
grant of arms. This last point is often forgotten. An applicant 
must make a case for why they deserve to have one. The
note states this waitlist has been in place since January 1st,
2023 which would imply demand increased during the
previous year. Which might tie it to the death of Queen
Elizabeth II in September of 2022. But that's just speculation.
​I may follow up with the heralds to see what's up.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

There has been a couple of initiatives
undertaken by the Ontario Government
recently which might be of interest to
Canadian monarchists. The first is the
renaming of Ontario's medal of merit to
the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal
for Good Citizenship. A bit wordy but it
is a welcome tribute to a Queen who
spent her entire life encouraging good
citizenship. This change was made with
not a word of objection. The second
change that was made would result in a
bit more discussion and debate.

The Ontario Government announced on June 30th that they
​would be restarting the practice of awarding the designation
of 'King's Counsel' in honour of the King's accession. I
previously wrote an article outlining the history of this title
so I won't go over that again here. Until the recent
announcement that new lawyers would be made king's
counsel, Ontario was one of only two provinces that did not
award this designation.

The government almost immediately came under fire for the
most quintessential of Canadian political mistakes: patronage.
While some of the recipients were worthy appointments, 
most were blatant patronage picks. Premier Ford seemed to
waffle on his response to the scandal, first denying being
involved in making the list and later promising clear rules and
a formal process for receiving the designation going forward.

​These are welcome developments, despite the rather rough
implementation. Ontario was one of the provinces that opted
not to create their own Platinum Jubilee Medal in the wake of
the federal government's failure to do so which left the
Ontario Government's position on the monarchy unclear. It is
unclear if these initiatives are coming from Premier Ford, or
someone in his cabinet. The Premier did give a great tribute
to the late Queen after her passing. Regardless of who exactly
is responsible, good news is good news and worth celebrating.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Earlier this week Prince William 
announced his plan to end 
homelessness in the United 
Kingdom. The initiative is called 
'Homewards' and takes inspiration 
from a similar program in 
Finland, which has nearly halved its
homeless numbers since 2010.
Under the Homewards program the homeless will be given a
place to stay before other issues such as drug use, joblessness,
or mental health issues are sorted out. Efforts will also be
made to identify those at risk before they become homeless in
order to offer assistance.

The project currently has 16 private sector partners across six
locations. Land from his private estate (Duchy of Cornwall)
will be used to build social housing. The job ahead is immense
with an estimated 300,000 people in the UK dealing with
homelessness. A number that is expected to rise with rising
inflation and energy costs.

Prince William credits the influence of his mother, Princess
Diana, for him taking on this cause. She felt the then 11-year
old Prince William should be exposed to how those of much
humbler means were forced to live and the experience seems
to have stuck with him. This is not Prince William's first
initiative to raise awareness of homelessness in the UK but
it is the first with the greatly expanded resources and soft
power that come with being the Prince of Wales at his
disposal.

As with any attempt at doing good these days there are
detractors. Most of this uninformed criticism focuses on
Prince William's relative wealth (much the same as people
who complained about His Majesty flying in private jets while
trying to negotiate carbon reduction). I think this misses the
point.

Once upon a time elites honoured the principle of noblesse
oblige even if they did not always live up to it. And it is far
better for elites to view themselves as having an obligation to
help their fellow citizens than for elites to view their fellow
citizens has a hinderance to their interests. The latter view has
infected the elites in the USA for many years and has created an increasing number of monsterous examples who I will not
discuss here. A country's elite should look to better the lives of the less fortunate and in this regard Prince William is setting
a wonderful example. 

​Of course some also argue that reducing homelessness should
be a government responsibility and royal action in this area
limited what government can do. Bull crap. Again referring
back to Charles, when he was still the Prince of Wales; he got
the wheels rolling on climate action long before governments
were onboard with it. Rather than squeeze out the Members
of Parliament and governments of the day I think it provided
both inspiration and admonishment to the political elite who
are ever-eager not to get too far ahead of popular opinion. By
making ending homelessness a royal issue it implicitly raises
the question of what the government is planning to do to fight
it. Now this initiative could fail or it could take longer to
accomplish than people thought it would (which many
wrongly count as failure) but at the end of the day Prince
William is willing to do something about homelessness and
that is to be applauded.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

With less than a month to go before the
coronation there has been an increase 
in government announcements in 
regards to the various aspects of the
celebration.

The Department of Canadian Heritage 
recently released the design for the
King's Coronation Emblem. It is full of
symbolism regarding the outlook of the
King and how he views his role. From
their website:

There has been some speculation on why King Charles III
opted for the Tudor Crown rather than St. Edward's Crown in
his cypher. Arguments largely fall into four categories:
1. To differentiate his reign from his mother's reign.
2. The Tudor Crown has a strong link with male monarchs.
3. A call-back to King Charles I after whom the King is named.
4. The simpler design fits the King's aesthetics better.

As briefly mentioned in the official description the emblem is
meant to convey people coming together and it is known the
King values his ability to bring people together to discuss
issues of concern.

Cathy Bursey-Sabourin, Fraser Herald at the Canadian
Heraldic Authority, has worked in Canadian heraldry for over
30 years and was the first women to hold a state herald
position in the Commonwealth. She previously designed the
Queen's Platinum Jubilee Emblem. In early 2023 she was
made a member of the Royal Victorian Order, which is a
personal gift of the reigning monarch.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

"Grief is the price we pay for love" ~Dr. Colin Murray Parkes and popularized by the Queen in 2001.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

By now most people have heard the
news about CTV News National
anchor Lisa LaFlamme being fired
without cause. I'm not going to re-
hash the opposing claims as I
wanted to highlight one aspect of
the story that sometimes gets
overlooked. 

At this time I would like to introduce the second player in this
story; Michael Melling. Michael is a vice-president of Bell
Media which owns CTV News. He is currently on leave to
'spend more time with his family'. 

Apparently, one of the issues that caused bad blood between
LaFlamme and Melling was the vice-president's initial refusal
to send a news crew to London to cover the Platinum Jubilee
celebrations. A staff member has quoted Melling as saying at
the time, "We’re not going. Cancel. It’s not worth it. Let’s
cover it from Toronto" and that it 'wasn't worth the expense'.
Lisa LaFlamme is reported to have replied, "We have to cover
the Queen! She’s Canada’s Queen too."

After more back and forth a reduced team was allowed to go
but they had to give up a shooting location near the event for
one much further away.

Lloyd Robertson, Lisa LaFlamme's predecessor, was also a
strong supporter of covering the monarchy and became an
honorary member of the Monarchist League of Canada in
1995. With both long-time news anchors out of a job it does
raise questions about future coverage of royal news.

Upon learning about the events described above I began to
wonder whether Michael Melling's actions were driven by
ideological, cost-benefit, or personal considerations. This is
somewhat hard to gauge as Michael has kept a fairly low
public profile and his coverage of news events in his former
career as a journalist ​don't touch on the monarchy.

Obviously, journalists with an awareness of the monarchy's
importance are ones I would like to see succeed. Bell Media
has not said that they will rehire Lisa LaFlamme, nor have
they said they will fire Michael Melling. Most likely they are
hoping their turn as 'newsmakers' will be brief.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

The Albert County Museum held a tree planting and reception
to mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. The event was well
attended and, besides a tipsy flag, went off without a hitch. 

There were several invited guests including a representative
from the provincial government (MLA Mike Holland), Village
of Hillsborough (Mayor Robert Rochon), Town of Riverview
(Deputy Mayor Jeremy Thorn), Royal Canadian Legion,
IODE (National President Jane Cushing), and myself as the
Chairman of the New Brunswick Branch of the Monarchist
League of Canada. While each gave a short speech I only have
the text for mine. Sufficed to ​say they were all lovely tributes. 

During Mike Holland's speech he announced that the New
Brunswick Government has decided to issue its own Platinum
Jubilee Medal. Details on eligibility will be announced in the
near future but it is likely to focus on frontline personnel.

On another front there was a bit of a good news-bad news
story. I had submitted a proposal to the Treasury Department,
with Mike Holland's assistance, for the forgiveness of all, or
most, student debt in the province as part of jubilee
celebrations. Admittedly this was a long shot shot but it never
hurts to ask. As it turns out full debt forgiveness was not on
the table but the Treasury Department did decide that they
could afford foregoing interest payments. This was announced
as a government policy, rather than a tribute to Her Majesty,
which is fine with me. I had noted in my submission that if
debt forgiveness was considered it should be more than a
token amount. Did my efforts contribute to this policy?
Impossible to say, the inner workings of government can be
opaque at times but it should be noted that even advocates for
debt forgiveness were surprised when interest payments were
ended so take that for what you will.

Anyways, that is all the news and gossip from this small
corner of Her Majesty's Canadian realm.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Earlier today the maiden article was posted by a new 
contributor to this site. He has chosen Lord Ludichris as 
his pen name and is a UK citizen. As an 'outsider looking in' it 
is expected he will bring a unique perspective to articles on 
the Canadian monarchy. He will also be supplying articles on 
the wider Commonwealth from time to time. He has stated 
an interest in possibly getting into journalism in the future
and we hope that the practice here can help him with that. 

This is the first new contributor in seven years. On that note, 
The Maple Monarchists turns eight this month. We will 
have to rustle up some cake at some point. 

​Loyally Yours,
The Maple Monarchists

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be coming 
to Canada on May 17th and staying till May 19th. They will 
visit the provinces of Newfoundland and Ontario as well as 
the Northwest Territories. 

Canadian Geographic Education has launched a competition 
open to classrooms from kindergarten to grade 12. The 
competition aims to highlight Canada's native flora. Rules for 
the competition can be found here.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

The government of Nova Scotia has announced that it will be 
issuing its own Platinum Jubilee Medal. More info can be 
found here.

Likewise, Saskatchewan has made a similar announcement
here. 

On the 20th it was learned that a large number of Liberal MPs
has written a group letter to the Minister of Canadian
Heritage asking that a platinum jubilee medal be issued.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour