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.
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